Multilevel asymmetric coupler MAC polarization beam splitter for Si photonics technology

Abstract

In this work, we present a new design of an integrated optical polarization beam splitter using the Multilevel Asymmetric Coupler MAC structure. The proposed structure is using CMOS compatible Si/SiO2 technology. The structure is tested using the Finite Difference Time Domain FDTD technique and showed a very good performance. The compromise between the structure footprint on Si and its performance is also investigated. The structure can offer an Extinction Ratio ER greater than 40 dB with a length of 5 µm. It can also be designed with a smaller length of only 2 µm but in this case its ER will be only 20 dB. It has a bandwidth of about 60 nm in which the insertion loss is less than 0.003 dB for the TE wave and less than 0.2 dB for the TM wave.

Keywords

• Integrated optics
• Polarization beam splitter
• Silicon photonics
• Asymmetric directional coupler