A silicon photonic integrated chip and a wavelength division multiplexer that includes at least two polarization control structures and at least one polarization-independent Mach-Zehnder interferometer on a silicon substrate are provided. The polarization control structure includes two input ports and one output port. The Mach-Zehnder interferometer includes two input ports and one optical signal output port for outputting a multiplexed optical signal. The output ports of the polarization control structures are connected to the input ports of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The polarization control structures have large bandwidths for increasing an optical bandwidth of the wavelength division multiplexer and reducing an optical loss. A quantity of phase shift arms that require tuning feedback is reduced to lower overall power consumption of the wavelength division multiplexer. Reliability and yields of the wavelength division multiplexer are enhanced due to a large manufacturing tolerance and good stability of the polarization control structures.

A polarization volume grating (PVG) includes a bulk, birefringent medium characterized by a plurality of helical structures with helix axes and a periodicity Λ.sub.y and an anisotropic alignment material having a rotatable optical axis, disposed on a top or bottom surface of the medium. The PVG is characterized in that the optical axis of the alignment material has a continuously rotated optical axis orientation in a plane of the material surface and a periodicity Λ.sub.x, wherein the helix axes are normal to the optical axes in the alignment material surface, further wherein the birefringent medium is characterized by a plurality of controllably slanted refractive index planes having a slant angle φ=±arctan (Λ.sub.y/Λ.sub.x) and a Bragg period Λ.sub.B. Fabrication methods are disclosed.

A tunable optical filter integrates the functions of wavelength tuning and power isolation of back reflection. The optical signal enters a Faraday rotator twice, and isolation is provided by two birefringent crystals, having their optical axes oriented at 45 degrees with respect to each other. The two birefringent crystals are on the same side of the Faraday rotator. The integration of an optical tunable filter and an isolator function into a single packaged component helps to reduce the size and complexity of optical amplifier systems, such as EDFAs and PDFAs, operating in the 1550 nm and 1310 nm transmission bands, respectively.

An optical wavelength demultiplexer includes a wavelength demultiplexing device, a first wavelength filter and a first- and second-stage wavelength sub-filters. The wavelength demultiplexing device demultiplexes an input light into a first wavelength band including wavelengths λ.sub.1 and λ.sub.2 in the vicinity of 1310 nm and a second wavelength band including a wavelength λ.sub.3 of 1490 nm and a wavelength λ.sub.4 of 1550 nm to output. The first-stage wavelength sub-filter removes the wavelength λ.sub.2 longer than 1310 nm from the second wavelength band and transmits the wavelength λ.sub.3 of 1490 nm. The second-stage wavelength sub-filter removes the wavelength λ.sub.4 of 1550 nm and outputs the wavelength λ.sub.3 of 1490 nm, which is the remainder of the selected lights, with a sufficient wavelength spectral purity.

A micro-ring resonator includes: at least one first straight waveguide; a second waveguide (Arm3) and a third waveguide (Arm2), where the second waveguide (Arm3) and the third waveguide (Arm2) form a closed annular waveguide, and the annular waveguide is coupled to the first waveguide; a fourth waveguide (Arm1), where the fourth waveguide (Arm1) is coupled to the annular waveguide; and a polarization splitter (PS), where one end of the polarization splitter (PS) is connected to the fourth waveguide (Arm1), and one end is connected to the second waveguide (Arm3) in the annular waveguide. In the micro-ring resonator, a distance between two waveguides for separately transmitting different polarized light breaks a limitation of a resonator radius, and further, a distance between a TE path and a TM path is reduced.

The present invention concerns a method for constructing a light coupling system wherein a grating is manufactured on the surface of a multimode waveguide and defines the entrance of the waveguide for an incident light beam, said grating comprising a repetition of patterns. The grating is defined by a set of parameters comprising: •grating period (P), separating two adjacent patterns, •grating depth (d) between the highest and the lowest point of the pattern, •incident angle mean value (θ) of the incident light with respect to the waveguide. The method comprises a step of optimization of the set of parameters to obtain an optimized second set of parameters, in order to obtain a transmission efficiency (Ce) of the incident light into said waveguide for the first or the second diffractive order exceeding 35% for unpolarized light, or exceeding 50% for polarized light, at a given wavelength of the incident light.

An integrated circuit that includes a wavelength-filter layer stack (which may include silicon oxynitride) and an optical substrate (such as a silicon-on-insulator platform) is described. During operation, an optical signal received from an optical fiber or an optical waveguide is wavelength filtered into a set of wavelength-filter optical waveguides by an optical multiplexer/demultiplexer (such as an Echelle grating and/or an array waveguide grating) in the wavelength-filter layer stack. Then, wavelength-filtered optical signals are optically coupled to the optical substrate, where they are received using photodetectors. Alternatively, modulators in the optical substrate modulate wavelength-filtered modulated optical signals, which are then optically coupled to the set of wavelength-filter optical waveguides in the wavelength-filter layer stack. Next, the wavelength-filtered modulated optical signals are combined using the optical multiplexer/demultiplexer, and the resulting optical signal is output to the optical fiber or the optical waveguide.

An optical device is provided. The optical device includes a substrate and a plurality of filters. The plurality of filters are disposed over the substrate. Each of the filters includes a support body, a filter layer, and a centrosymmetric spacer. The support body has a first side surface and a second side surface opposite to the first side surface. The filter layer is on the first side surface. The spacer is attached to the first side surface by a second adhesive layer on the first side surface. The centrosymmetric spacer is attached to the filter layer, at least a peripheral portion of the filter layer is free from being covered by the centrosymmetric spacer.

Methods and systems for eliminating polarization dependence for 45 degree incidence MUX/DEMUX designs may include an optical transceiver, where the optical transceiver comprises an input optical fiber, a beam splitter, and a plurality of thin film filters arranged above corresponding grating couplers in a photonics die. The transceiver may receive an input optical signal comprising different wavelength signals via the input optical fiber, split the input optical signal into signals of first and polarizations using the beam splitter by separating the signals of the second polarization laterally from the signals of the first polarization, communicate the signals of the first polarization and the second polarization to the plurality of thin film filters, and reflect signals of each of the plurality of different wavelength signals to corresponding grating couplers in the photonics die using the thin film filters.

Examples of a polarization independent optical device are described. One example polarization independent optical device includes an input/output preprocessing optical path and M add/drop optical paths. Any add/drop optical path can be configured to drop a first Q.sub.TE and a first P.sub.TE that meet a resonance condition of a microring included in the add/drop optical path such that each add/drop optical path can be configured to drop a desired optical signal. Any add/drop optical path can also be configured to transmit an input optical signal to the input/output preprocessing optical path. Therefore, when any of the M add/drop optical paths is configured to drop a desired optical signal, another add/drop optical path can be configured to add a desired optical signal.