Polarization beam splitter using a binary blazed grating coupler

A novel polarization beam splitter using a two-layer grating coupler is proposed and demonstrated. It can directly couple the normally incident light from fiber into two separate waveguides according to their polarization states while splitting them. It realizes high coupling efficiency and a good extinction ratio by using binary blazed grating couplers. The coupling length is less than 14 mu m. The extinction ratio is better than 20 dB for both polarizations over a 40 nm wavelength range, and the coupling efficiencies for the two layers are 58 % and 50 %. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.