Compact polarization rotator on silicon for polarization-diversified circuits

We demonstrate a polarization rotator based on adiabatic mode evolution on silicon for polarization-diversified circuits. The rotator has a device length of 420 mu m, a polarization-conversion efficiency of more than 90%, and an insertion loss less than 1 dB for a wavelength range of 80 nm. Combining the rotator with a compact, broadband polarization beam splitter based on cascaded directional couplers enhances the polarization conversion extinction ratio to over 30 dB with less than 1: 5 dB total insertion loss over a 60 nm spectral range. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America