All‐in‐one silicon photonic polarization processor

Abstract

Abstract With the great developments in optical communication technology and large‐scale optical integration technology, it is imperative to realize the traditional functions of polarization processing on an integration platform. Most of the existing polarization devices, such as polarization multiplexers/demultiplexers, polarization controllers, polarization analyzers, etc., perform only a single function. Definitely, integrating all these polarization functions on a chip will increase function flexibility and integration density and also cut the cost. In this article, we demonstrate an all‐in‐one chip‐scale polarization processor based on a linear optical network. The polarization functions can be configured by tuning the array of phase shifters on the chip. We demonstrate multiple polarization processing functions, including those of a multiple‐input‐multiple‐output polarization descrambler, polarization controller, and polarization analyzer, which are the basic building blocks of polarization processing. More functions can be realized by using an additional two‐dimensional output grating. A numerical gradient descent algorithm is employed to self‐configure and self‐optimize these functions. Our demonstration suggests great potential for chip‐scale, reconfigurable, and fully programmable photonic polarization processors with the artificial intelligence algorithm.