Demonstration of ultra-broadband single-mode and single-polarization operation in T-Guides

Silica-based anchored-membrane waveguides (T-Guides) are fabricated and characterized from the visible to infrared with streak imaging. It is numerically shown that the T-Guides can have wideband single-mode and single-polarization (SMSP) properties over a span of 2.6 octaves. Experimentally, a polarization-dependent loss difference of up to 89±19 dB/cm is measured between orthogonal polarizations and a record SMSP window of >1.27 octaves is observed, limited only by the available measurement equipment. These measurements make a strong case for T-Guides for SMSP photonics, particularly in high-index materials such as those in our previous demonstration on silicon.