Broadband polarizing beam splitter with an embedded metal-wire nanograting

An embedded metal-wire nanograting is designed and fabricated for the first time to our knowledge. This artificial material could be used as a broadband polarizing beam splitter to reflect s-polarized light and transmit p-polarized light. An upper-cladding layer of the same material as the gratings is deposited on the ridge of the gratings, whereas the metal wire is deposited in the grating trenches. This embedded structure makes the grating more firm in its applications. High polarization efficiency and low insertion loss with a broad wavelength range (900-1700 nm) and a wide angular tolerance are obtained by optimization of the designed structure. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America