Broadband and compact polarization beam splitter based on an asymmetrical directional coupler with extra optimizing designs

In this paper, a novel, to the best of our knowledge, polarization beam splitter (PBS) based on an asymmetrical directional coupler (DC) was proposed, which consists of a strip waveguide (WG) and a Si3N4 loaded horizontal slot WG. By carefully adjusting the geometric parameters of the DC, the phase match condition between these two WGs can be satisfied for the transverse magnetic (TM) polarization, while the coupling efficiency of the transverse electric (TE) polarization is frustrated due to the large phase mismatch. The extra optimizing designs include adding filters to the output ports as well as introducing the tapered structure into the DC, which is settled by the particle swarm optimizing (PSO) algorithm so that the performance of the proposed PBS is improved over a broadband range. Numerical simulations show that the bandwidths for the extinction ratio (ER) >20dB, 30 dB, and 40 dB are 160 nm, 95 nm, and 50 nm, respectively, with insertion loss (IL) <1dB for the wavelength of 1.49–1.58 µm. The analysis of the deviations demonstrates that the proposed PBS allows high fabrication tolerances.