Design of on-chip polarimetry with Stokes-determined silicon photonic circuits

Measuring the states of optical polarization is crucial in many scientific and technological disciplines, and more recently towards the development of chip-scale or nanoscale polarimetry. Here we present a new design of on-chip Stokes polarimetric scheme based on polarization-dependent silicon photonic circuits. The structural elements including polarization rotator and splitter, directional coupler, and phase shifter are assembled to produce polarization-dependent silicon photonic circuits. The orthogonally linear, diagonal, and circular polarization components of the incident light, corresponding to the three Stokes parameters (S₁, S₂, and S₃), can be simultaneously measured based on the Stokes-determined silicon photonic circuit output arrays so as to realize the full measurement of the incident polarization states. This on-chip polarimetry proposed here may enrich the family of micro-nano polarimetric devices, and pave the way to polarization-based integrated optoelectronics, nanophotonics, and metrology.