2x2 photonic crystal fiber splitter based on silica-based planar lightwave circuits

A 2x2 photonic crystal fiber (PCF) planar lightwave circuit (PLC) splitter, which splits optical power between two PCF channels, has been made by PCF-to-PLC connections. PCF array blocks were lithographically fabricated to have fiber V grooves and used to firmly hold PCFs and align them to the PLC splitter. The proposed splitter showed a rather flat splitting ratio over a wide wavelength range from 1250 nmto1750 nm. With the implemented splitter, we obtained a low excess loss of 1.6 dB, a low polarization-dependent loss of 0.1 dB, and a high return loss of 52 dB. The ultrabroadband operation of the proposed splitter is expected to find applications in optical performance monitoring, Ethernet passive optical networks, and biomedical optics including optical coherence tomography.