Reducing Polarization-Dependent Loss of Silicon-on-Insulator Fiber to Chip Grating Couplers

For many telecommunication applications, low polarization-dependent loss (PDL) operation is mandatory. On the silicon-on-insulator photonic wire platform, this can be achieved using polarization diversity configurations. However, as we show here, when using two-dimensional grating couplers for near vertical fiber input and output, the low PDL bandwidth is limited. We propose and demonstrate the use of a ¿ phase shifter in one of the arms of the polarization diversity circuit to effectively reduce PDL (0.15-dB PDL is shown) and increase the low PDL bandwidth.