Polarization splitting of optical resonant modes in a-Si:H/a-SiO(x):H microcavities

We present experimental and theoretical results on polarization splitting of optical resonant modes in a-Si:H/a-SiO(x):H microcavities. It is shown experimentally that the splitting sign and value can be controlled by varying the active layer thickness. The polarization splitting achieved in the microcavities is about 8 meV owing to a large optical contrast, which is the ratio of film refractive indices in the distributed Bragg reflectors. The experimental data and theoretical analysis show that the polarization splitting may be zero at a certain angle of incidence of light determined by the microcavity parameters. The measured and calculated resonant frequency values for TM and TE polarizations were used to find the optical thickness of the active layer and the stop-band center frequency of the Bragg reflector. The account of the active layer thickness fluctuations along the lateral direction provides a better fit between the experimental and theoretical spectra.