Broadband polarizer based on anisotropic subwavelength grating metamaterial

Silicon photonic polarizers are specialized optical devices designed to filter, control, and manipulate the polarization state of light in integrated photonic circuits. Comprising carefully engineered silicon waveguide structures, these polarizers play a crucial role in ensuring the efficient and reliable operation of various optical communication and sensing systems. Over the years, various silicon photonic polarizer designs have been proposed. However, most designs suffer from a narrow working bandwidth or a large device footprint.

A polarizer design demonstrated by Hongnan Xu, Daoxin Dai, and Yaocheng Shi, "Anisotropic metamaterial-assisted all-silicon polarizer with 415-nm bandwidth," *Photon. Res.* 7, 1432-1439 (2019),DOI: 10.1364/PRJ.7.001432 (opens new window) utilizes anisotropic subwavelength grating (SWG) metamaterial cladding to a 180 degree waveguide bend. This polarizer design preserves the TE mode and filters out TM mode in a broad wavelength range of 400 nm. The footprint of the device is also more compact than many of the previous designs.

To view the full example in Python, please click here (opens new window).