Research on a Broadband Compact Polarization Beam Splitter

Abstract

Many devices based on silicon and other photonic integrated circuit platforms exhibit significant polarization dependence. Polarization beam splitter (PBS) is a device that split optical signals into transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes. Among various PBSs, asymmetric directional couplers are widely used due to their fine performance, but their working bandwidth is limited due to wavelength changes that can lead to deviations in effective refractive index and coupling strength. We propose a PBS, which uses metamaterial anisotropy to replace structural asymmetry and break the bandwidth bottleneck. It achieves good performance in the wavelength range of 258 nm, where the extinction ratio of the TM polarization is greater than 24 dB and that of the TE polarization is greater than 26 dB. It covers the E, S, C, L, and U bands, and the coupling area is as small as 7.25×2.625 μm, with a total device footprint of 15.65×6.125 μm.