Selecting the polarization in silicon photonic wire components

Dan-Xia Xu; André Delâge; Jens H. Schmid; Rubin Ma; Shurui Wang; Jean Lapointe; Martin Vachon; Pavel Cheben; Siegfried Janz

doi:10.1117/12.911368

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2 February 2012 Selecting the polarization in silicon photonic wire components

Dan-Xia Xu, André Delâge, Jens H. Schmid, Rubin Ma, Shurui Wang, Jean Lapointe, Martin Vachon, Pavel Cheben, Siegfried Janz

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Proceedings Volume 8266, Silicon Photonics VII; 82660G (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.911368
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2012, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Silicon photonic wire waveguides are usually highly birefringent, so they are generally designed to operate for one particular polarization. For commonly used waveguides with a silicon thickness of 220 nm, TE polarization is preferred since TM is only weakly guided. For waveguides with a silicon thickness larger than 250 nm, both TE and TM polarizations have been employed. Overall, the choice of polarization has largely appeared arbitrary. In this presentation we review the pertinent polarization-dependent waveguide properties, including losses, back-reflection, polarization conversion and fabrication tolerances, with the intent to suggest guidelines for choosing the proper polarization. Through experimental evidence, we show that TM polarization has several important advantages and can support high performance resonators with a radius down to 2 μm.

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Dan-Xia Xu, André Delâge, Jens H. Schmid, Rubin Ma, Shurui Wang, Jean Lapointe, Martin Vachon, Pavel Cheben, and Siegfried Janz "Selecting the polarization in silicon photonic wire components", Proc. SPIE 8266, Silicon Photonics VII, 82660G (2 February 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.911368

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