Realization of a compact polarization splitter-rotator on silicon

A novel compact polarization splitter-rotator (PSR) is proposed and realized with silicon-on-insulator nanowires. The present PSR consists of an adiabatic taper, an asymmetric directional coupler (ADC), and a multimode interference (MMI) mode filter. The adiabatic taper enables an efficient mode conversion from the launched TM₀ mode to the TE₁ mode in a wide waveguide, which is then coupled to the TE₀ mode of a narrow waveguide through the ADC. Meanwhile, the launched TE₀ mode does not have mode conversion and outputs from the through port directly. The MMI mode filter is cascaded at the through port to filter out the residual power of the TE₁ mode so that the extinction ratio of the PSR is improved greatly. The total length of the PSR is ∼70 μm and the fabricated PSR has an extinction ratio of ∼20 dB over a broadband ranging from 1547 to 1597 nm.