Design of Integrated Polarization Beam Splitter With Liquid Crystal

An integrated polarization beam splitter based on a directional coupler (DC) with an etched slot and filled-in liquid crystal covering layer, which utilizes the birefringence of liquid crystal materials, is proposed. A supermode solution for the DC involving birefringence materials and the corresponding full-vector anisotropic beam propagation method are employed as modeling tools. A numerical design of the proposed structure is presented. Beam propagation behavior along the whole structure involving curved input and output regions and central coupling region is simulated. Simulation result shows an extinction ratio of 25.3 and 41.9 dB for the TE and TM mode, respectively