Planar fiber-chip-coupling using angle-polished polarization maintaining fibers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel planar fiber-chip coupling method using angle-polished polarization maintaining fibers, addressing polarization sensitivity and stability challenges in integrated photonics.

Contribution

It presents a detailed processing technique and experimental validation for a stable, low-loss fiber-chip coupling scheme using angle-polished PM fibers.

Findings

Successful implementation of a planar fiber-chip coupling with low loss

Stable and polarization-preserving coupling demonstrated

Potential for multi-wavelength polarization-sensitive applications

Abstract

We report on our latest developments of a planar fiber-chip-coupling scheme, using angle polished, polarization maintaining (PM) fibers. Most integrated photonic chip components are polarization sensitive and a suitable way to launch several wavelength channels with the same polarization to the chip is the use of PM fibers. Those impose several challenges at processing and handling to achieve a stable, permanent, and low-loss coupling. We present the processing of the fibers in detail and experimental results for our planar and compact fiber-chip-coupling technique.