An Integrated Surface Plasmonic TE-Pass Polarizer on a Silica-on-Silicon Waveguide

We report an integrated implementation of a surface plasmonic TE-pass polarizer on a silica-on-silicon waveguide. The effect of waveguide width and length on polarization extinction ratio (PER) were investigated. For a 10 mm device, PER in excess of 48 dB with TE mode loss of approximately 0.8 dB was recorded. In addition, we experimentally demonstrate a wavelength dependence of PER smaller than 3 dB with a width of 5.5-
$6.5~\mu \text{m}$
device over the C band from 1520–1580 nm. We also present a theoretical analysis and numerical simulation of this architecture that are in good agreement with each other and the experimental results. By improving the fabrication process and PER measurement method, over 60 dB PER and less 0.1 dB TE mode loss can be obtained for a 10 mm polarizer according to our model, which is expected to be widely applicated in sensors such as optical gyroscopes.