Electrically tunable optical polarization rotation on a silicon chip using Berry's phase.

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Quantum Mechanics
• Integrated Circuits

Background:

• Electrical manipulation of light polarization in planar waveguides is challenging.
• Convergence of electronics and photonics requires voltage-controlled polarization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel method for electrically tunable optical polarization on the chip scale.
• To leverage Berry's phase for polarization control in integrated optical devices.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of out-of-plane optical waveguides on a silicon-on-insulator platform.
• Demonstration of dynamic polarization tuning between transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes.

Main Results:

• Achieved electrically tunable optical polarization rotation.
• Demonstrated dynamic tuning over a 19 dB polarization extinction ratio.
• Reported less than 1 dB conversion loss at infrared wavelengths.

Conclusions:

• Out-of-plane waveguides enable chip-scale voltage control of optical polarization.
• The developed devices offer dynamic polarization tuning capabilities.
• Envisioned compact system architectures for integrated circuits with dynamic polarization control.