Ultracompact silicon on-chip polarization controller

On-chip polarization controllers are extremely important for various optical systems.In this paper,a compact and robust silicon-based on-chip polarization controller is proposed and demonstrated by integrating a special polarization converter and phase shifters.The special polarization converter consists of a 1×1 Mach–Zehnder interferometer with two polarization-dependent mode converters at the input/output ends.When light with an arbitrary state of polarization(SOP)is launched into the chip,the TE_(0)and TM_(0)modes are simultaneously excited.The polarization extinction ratio(PER)and the phase difference for the TE_(0)∕TM_(0)modes are tuned by controlling the first phase shifter,the polarization converter,and the second phase shifter.As a result,one can reconstruct the light SOP at the output port.The fabricated polarization controller,as compact as~150μm×700μm,exhibits an excess loss of less than 1 dB and a record PER range of>54 dB for arbitrary input light beams in the wavelength range of 1530–1620 nm.