CMOS compatible all-silicon TM pass polarizer based on highly doped silicon waveguide

Area of Science:

• Photonics and optical engineering
• Semiconductor device physics

Background:

• Integrated photonics demand efficient polarization control components.
• Transverse magnetic (TM) pass polarizers are crucial for optical signal processing.
• Existing TM polarizers often involve complex fabrication or specialized materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and simulate a novel TM-pass polarizer compatible with silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology.
• To achieve a high extinction ratio and low insertion loss using a simplified design.
• To demonstrate a fabrication process amenable to standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) manufacturing.

Main Methods:

• Device simulation using a novel approach.
• Utilizing a highly doped p-silicon waveguide as a transverse hybrid plasmonic waveguide.
• Analysis of device performance based on simulated parameters.

Main Results:

• Achieved an extinction ratio of 30.11 dB.
• Observed an insertion loss of 3.08 dB.
• Device length optimized to 15 µm.

Conclusions:

• The proposed TM-pass polarizer offers competitive performance.
• The design simplifies fabrication by using only silicon waveguides.
• This approach is suitable for CMOS-compatible integrated photonic circuits.