Integrated polarization rotator/converter by stimulated Raman adiabatic passage

We proposed a polarization rotator inspired by stimulated Raman adiabatic passage model from quantum optics, which is composed of a signal waveguide and an ancillary waveguide. The two orthogonal modes in signal waveguide and the oblique mode in ancillary waveguide form Lambda-type three-level system. By controlling the width of signal waveguide and the gap between two waveguides, adiabatic conversion between two orthogonal modes can be realized in the signal waveguide. With such adiabatic passage, polarization conversion is completed within 150 mu m length, with the efficiencies over 99% for both conversions between horizontal polarization and vertical polarization. In addition, such a polarization rotator is quite robust against fabrication error, allowing a wide range of tolerances for the rotator geometric parameters. Our work is not only significative to photonic simulations of coherent quantum phenomena with engineered photonic waveguides, but also enlightens the practical applications of these phenomena in optical device designs. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America