Photonic crystal fiber polarization rotator based on the topological Zeeman effect

A photonic crystal fiber polarization rotator (PR) is proposed based on the topological Zeeman effect. The proposed PR is achieved by permanently twisting a segment of sixfold symmetric photonic crystal fiber with a matched length, and under the optimized parameters, the PR can offer an almost 100% polarization conversion ratio in the wavelength of 1.55-mu m band (similar to 200 nm bandwidth) and a compact length of about 157 mu m based on the numerical simulation result of the full-vector finite-element method. The proposed in-line PCF PR can be easily fabricated based on state-of-art PCF manufacturing, and it is a potential inexpensive candidate in the application of modern communication systems. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America