Novel polarization selector based on an active waveguide photonic bandgap structure

We describe a photonic bandgap polarization selector based on a photonic crystal placed at junction of two 90° intersecting waveguides to form an ultra-compact device. The photonic crystal consists of 7 layers of a triangular lattice with a radius to pitch ratio (r/a) of 0.24 and a lattice constant of 0.386μm. The PBG is orientated so that the light is incident and collected at 45° to the Γ-K crystallographic direction. Modeling of the PBG shows that TM polarized light is strongly reflected while TE light passes largely into the crystal. Measurements of the fibre-to-fibre transmitted power of the device for each polarization show that the TM collected power is ∼6dB higher than the TE light for equal input polarization powers. Further evidence of the strong reflection of TM light comes from an equivalent sample without a 2-D lattice at the waveguide junction. In these samples, no TM light is detected at the output. Furthermore, by taking into account the TE and TM gains within the active waveguides, the TM to TE polarization selection of the PBG is estimated to be up to 22dB.