Abstract
Controlling the polarization of light in a waveguide-based photonic circuit is a notoriously difficult task. Any incoming state of polarization decomposes into a transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) mode, both of which typically travel with different propagation constants. The obvious way to address this problem is to design polarization independent devices. These are indeed available, but they require tight tolerances to ensure that the two propagation constants are equal. As circuits become more densely integrated and waveguide cross-sections grow smaller, these tolerances are even harder to meet, so polarization independence is increasingly difficult to achieve. In the extreme, i.e. the nanophotonics context, with waveguide cross-sections of a few 100 nm, polarization independence is almost impossible to realize in practice. The solution then lies in the polarization diversity approach, whereby the incoming signal is separated according to polarization and the two are treated independently from then on [1,2]. Implementing polarization diversity requires a polarization splitter and a polarization rotator. While several concepts for polarization splitters are available [3,4], realizing an efficient polarization rotator, especially on a micrometre-size lengthscale, is a difficult task. Here, we demonstrate efficient polarization rotation on nanophotonic lengthscales (< 2 μm) with a device based on photonic crystal concepts [6].
© 2005 Optical Society of America
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