SCIENCE CHINA Information Sciences

. RESEARCH PAPERS .

February 2010 Vol. 53 No. 2: 390397 doi: 10.1007/s11432-010-0017-9

Theoretical analysis of polarization properties for tilted ber Bragg gratings

XU Ou1 , LU ShaoHua2 & JIAN ShuiSheng2
1Faculty

2Institute

of Information Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China; of Lightwave Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China Received July 22, 2008; accepted January 4, 2009; published online January 28, 2010

Abstract The polarization properties for tilted ber Bragg gratings (TFBGs) are investigated theoretically based on coupled-mode theory and Mueller matrix method. The expression of wavelength-related polarizationdependent loss (PDL) for TFBGs with dierent tilt angles is derived and calculated. Simulation results are compared, and the results indicate that the polarization capability of TFBGs with 45 angle is stronger than other TFBGs with smaller angles. The degree of polarization for unpolarized light passing TFBGs is also simulated to further evaluate the polarization properties for various tilt angles. In addition, the relationship between physical parameters of a TFBG and its polarization capability is discussed. Keywords coupled-mode theory, degree of polarization (DOP), Mueller matrix method, polarization dependent loss (PDL), tilted ber Bragg gratings
Citation Xu O, Lu S H, Jian S S. Theoretical analysis of polarization properties for tilted ber Bragg gratings. Sci China Inf Sci, 2010, 53: 390397, doi: 10.1007/s11432-010-0017-9

Introduction

Tilted ber Bragg gratings (TFBG), also called blazed, slanted, and side-tap gratings [1], as a specic subset of grating components, have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their unique abilities. TFBGs can realize ecient coupling of core mode to cladding and radiation modes, and the coupling can be highly polarization-dependent at large tilt angles [2], thus suggesting the potential of TFBGs for polarization-related applications. Taking advantages of this characteristic, TFBGs has been implemented as in-ber polarizers [3], polarization-dependent loss (PDL) equalizers [4], PDL compensators [5] and in-line polarimeters [6, 7]. A theoretical analysis of the polarization properties for TFBGs is thus desirable to present evaluations of the polarization-dependent quantities such as PDL and the degree of polarization (DOP) of transmitted light through a TFBG. However, as far as we know, in previous papers the polarization properties of TFBGs has not been analyzed quantitatively. Thus the optimization and design of such devices have been somewhat aected. In this paper, based on the coupled-mode theory and Mueller matrix method, the polarization properties of TFBGs with dierent tilt angles are studied and described. Through the Mueller matrix, an explicit expression of wavelength-dependent PDL for TFBGs is derived. The polarization capability of
Corresponding

author (email: aliceseaer@163.com; xuou@gdut.edu.cn)

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Figure 1

Schematic diagram of a tilted ber grating.

TFBGs with dierent tilt angles are compared by simulating the corresponding PDL and DOP of an unpolarized light after it passes through TFBGs. And the inuences of specic grating physical parameters on the polarization properties are investigated so as to provide some rough guidelines for the design of TFBG related devices.

2
2.1

Theory
Transmission coecient for s-polarized or p-polarized light in TFBG

Figure 1 shows an x-tilted grating written in a ber whose index-modulation planes are tilted about the y axis by an angle from the x axis, and the z axis coincides with the ber axis. Here only the coupling between the bound core mode and the radiation modes in a ber with an innite cladding is considered, which can be realized in experiments by immersing the ber in a medium with a refractive index equal to or higher than that of the cladding. According to the coupled-mode theory [2], the grating-induced coupling between the forward-propagating bound core mode LP01 and a whole set of backward-propagating radiation LP modes can be described by du = [i 2 As(p) ]u(z ) + igb (z ), dz d = [i 2 As(p) ] (z ) igb u(z ), dz

(1)

where u(z ) and (z ) are forward-going and backward-going core-mode amplitude related variables; is the reference wavelength number, is a general dc self-coupling coecient [8]; = gf + for a grating without chirp; gf and gb are coupling constants mainly determined by the ber characteristics and the grating pitch along the ber axis; and 2 describe the grating index amplitude which are constants for uniform grating. This paper focuses on perfectly modulated uniform gratings, i.e. = 2. = K 1 (01 K ), 01 is the propagation constant for LP01 mode and K represents the wave number of the grating along the ber axis (Figure 1). As(p) is called the eective extinction coecient, s(p) s(p) As(p) = q Aq , q = 1, 2, 3, . . ., and Aq represents the coupling eciency between the s-polarized (p-polarized) LP01 core mode and s-polarized (p-polarized) LPq radiation mode. Because the coupling strength between two modes of the same polarization state is by several orders of magnitude stronger than the coupling between modes of dierent polarization states, or depolarized modes, we only consider the s s or p p coupling. Assuming u(L/2) = 1 and (L/2) = 0 for a uniform tilted grating of length L, we can get the transmission coecient of s-polarized or p-polarized light for the grating as ts(p) = where s(p) = u(L/2) = u(L/2) cosh[L s(p) ] + 1
2 As(p) i(gf + ) s(p)

sinh[L s(p) ]

(2)

(gb )2 (gf + + i2 As(p) )2 , and the power transmission coecient Ts(p) = |ts(p) |2 .

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2.2

Description of the transmission properties of the TFBG by a Mueller matrix

Considering a Cartesian coordinates system such that the x(y ) axis corresponds to the p(s) polarization, the incident polarized light can be represented by the following Jones vector: Ex Ey = Ep Es . (3)

Because the mode coupling is very weak between the dierent polarizations [2, 8] and can be ignored, the transmitted light can be simply represented by Ex Ey = tp Ep ts Es . (4)

The Stokes parameters can be deduced by the Jones vectors. For the incident light characterized by the Stokes vector Sin , the four Stokes parameters can be obtained from the Jones vector in (3) as
S0 = Ep Ep + Es Es ,

(5) (6) (7) (8)

S1 = S2 = S3 =

Ep Ep Ep Es

Es Es , + Es Ep ,

i(Es Ep

Ep Es ),

Similarly, the Stokes parameters of Sout for the transmitted light are
S 0 = t p tp Ep Ep + ts ts Es Es ,

(9) (10) (11) (12)

S1 = S2 = S3 =

t p tp Ep Ep ts ts Es Es , t p ts Ep Es + ts tp Es Ep , i(t s tp Es Ep tp ts Ep Es ).

With known Sin and Sout , the Mueller matrix for a TFBG can be deduced from Sout = M Sin as 0 0 m11 m12 m21 m22 0 0 , M = (13) 0 m33 m34 0 0 0 m43 m44
m11 = m22 = tp t p + ts ts , m33 = m44 = tp t s + ts tp , m12 = m21 = tp t p ts ts , m34 = m43 = i(ts t p tp ts ).

From the Mueller matrix, the polarization dependent loss of the TFBG can be calculated [9, 10] P DL = 10 log m11 + |m12 | . m11 |m12 | (14)

Substituting ts(p) into the matrix, the polarization characteristics of the TFBG under dierent conditions can be obtained quantitatively.

3
3.1

Simulations and discussion

Spectral characteristics of the TFBG with dierent tilt angles

Since the matrix elements ts(p) are wavelength-dependent transmission coecients and strongly impacted by the tilt angle of the TFBG, rst the transmission spectra of the light after passing the TFBG with

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dierent tilt angles are simulated by eq. (2). In the simulations the core size is set at 5.25 m, core index n1 = 1.445, grating length L=5 cm, = 5 104 . Figure 2 shows the calculated transmission spectra of s-polarized and p-polarized light for selected values of . In order to get a clear comparison and eliminate the inuence of dispersion on the TFBG, the simulations are performed while the centre wavelength of the transmission loss spectra is xed and the grating period is varied. For dierent s, the wavelength range in the corresponding gure is adjusted to show the transmission loss spectra completely. Note that, the width of the loss spectra are much wider than the transmission spectra of untilted ber Bragg gratings. That is because, for a tilted grating, the coupling of the bound core mode to radiation modes with all odd azimuthal quantum numbers and all even numbers is allowed. But, for an untilted grating, the bound mode can only be coupled to radiation modes with azimuthal quantum numbers 0 and 2 [2]. From the gures, the dierence between s-polarized curve and p-polarized curve becomes remarkably obvious with the increase of the tilt angle. In order to verify this trend, the simulations for more tilt angles are calculated, and the minimum power transmission coecients of two s(p) polarizations Tmin for each angle are compared and plotted in Figure 3. It is clear that the values of s(p) Tmin for two polarizations become more and more dierent with increasing tilt angle. When is 45 , the p curve of T p , i.e. the transmission spectra of p-polarized light, is almost like a wave line and Tmin is not as p s obvious as other tilt angles. Through simulations, we see that Tmin Tmin is more than 0.444 for = 45 . It should be noted that the wavelengths where the minimum transmissions appear are not the same for two polarizations with large tilt angles. In Figure 2(b), the lowest point in the p-polarization curve moves towards longer wavelengths about 25 nm, compared with the lowest point in the s-polarization curve xed at 1550 nm. 3.2 Polarization properties of TFBGs with dierent tilt angles

The transmission spectra analysis shows that the transmission loss of a TFBG is signicantly polarizationdependent, and the polarization sensitivity is dierent for dierent tilt angles. When = 45 , all the p-polarized light almost passes through the TFBG, whereas the loss for s-polarized light is large. When

Figure 2

The calculated transmission spectra of s-polarized and p-polarized light for dierent tilt angles.

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Figure 3

The minimum power transmission coecients of two polarizations and the dierence between two polarizations

versus tilt angles.

is small, e.g. 5 , the transmissions for two polarizations dier little. The physical meaning of the dierent polarization-dependences of the minimum power transmission coecients with dierent tilt angles can be explained by Fresnel equations and Brewsters law, as is detailed in [11]. Ref. [11] simply made clear why the dierence in the minimum power transmission coecients between two polarizations reached maximum when = 45 . In the following, the polarization properties of TFBGs are further discussed quantitatively. As is well known, polarization dependent loss (PDL) is dened as the maximum change in the power transmitted by an optical device as the input state of polarization (SOP) is varied over all possible polarization states. To verify the deduced expression of the wavelength-dependent PDL of TFBGs (eq. (14)), we calculate PDL in the range of 100 nm around 1550 nm according to the parameters in [4]: tilt angle 38.2 (achieved with eq. (2) in [4]), grating period about 1 m along the ber axis, grating length of 2 cm, and index change 3.5 103 . Simulation results are plotted in Figure 4, which shows that the range and variation tendency of the calculated PDL basically agree with the measured PDL in [4]. The small deviation between the calculated results shown in Figure 4 and experimental results presented in [4] could result from the dierence in detailed parameters of ber structure in the simulations in [4]. It is noted that there is no ripple in the PDL curve in Figure 4, but a ripple exists in the PDL measurement

Figure 4 Calculated PDL versus wavelength using parameters in [4].

Figure 5

Calculated wavelength-dependent PDL for dif-

ferent tilt angles.

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in [4]. This is because we simulate the coupling behavior in an innite-cladding ber which is coated with index matching oil, but in [4] the PDL was measured when the blazed grating was just in the air. By eq. (14), the wavelength dependent PDL is calculated for dierent tilt angles (Figure 5). The parameters used in the calculations are the same as those in Figure 2, and for convenient comparison, the smallest wavelength range of the transmission loss spectra is chosen for three angles (Figure 2). Simulation results show that the PDL of the TFBG with = 45 is the largest among the three s, and the dierence between the maximum and minimum PDL values for 45 is less than 0.8 dB in the wavelength range of 200 nm. The at curve of PDL indicates that the TFBG with 45 angle can be implemented as a PDL equalizer, PDL compensator or a polarizer. In Figure 5, the maximum PDL value is about 2.6 dB which is not large enough to meet the practical needs. For a TFBG with a certain period and tilt angle, grating length L and index modulation amplitude are two other adjustable physical parameters. Figure 6(a) shows the wavelength-dependent PDL for the TFBG of 45 angle with dierent s and Figure 6(b) shows dierent grating lengths. The values of PDL in the whole wavelength range increase with increasing L and . In order to examine the inuence of these two parameters, we calculated the values of PDL at 1550 nm with dierent grating lengths and index modulation amplitudes for three s. The results are plotted in Figure 7. In Figure 7(a), the calculations show that PDL increases linearly with increasing grating length, when = 5 104 . The slope of 45 curve is about 0.52 dB/cm for the TFBG structure used here, and the 15 curve is only 0.086 dB/cm. When the grating length is xed at 5 cm, the PDL varies nonlinearly with index modulation depth (Figure 7(b)). When is 2 103 , which can be realized in the practical fabrications [12], the PDL for 45 can reach as high as 41.72 dB, while the growing speeds of the other two s are slow. Thus increasing the grating length and strengthening the index modulation depth can help to achieve a large PDL. And it is evident that, the increasing speed of PDL with grating length and index modulation depth is the fastest for 45 angle among all smaller tilt angles.

Figure 6

The wavelength-dependent PDL for the TFBG of 45 angle with dierent (a) and (b) grating length.

Figure 7

The PDL at 1550 nm versus (a) grating lengths and (b) index modulation amplitudes for three s.

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Furthermore, the polarizing capability of the TFBG with dierent tilt angles is evaluated by calculating the degree of polarization (DOP) of unpolarized light after it passes through the TFBG. The Stokes vector of the unpolarized light is [1 0 0 0]T . The transmitted light vector can be deduced from the product of the Mueller matrix of the TFBG and [1 0 0 0]T as m11 m11 m12 1 S0 0 0 S1 m21 m22 0 0 = 0 = m21 . (15) Sout = S 0 0 m33 m34 0 0 2 0 0 S3 0 0 m43 m44 The DOP is dened as the ratio between the intensity of the totally polarized component to the total intensity of the light and can be calculated using Stokes parameters of the vector [13]. Here, we have DOP =
2 + S2 + S2 |tp t S1 |m21 | p ts ts | 2 3 = = . S0 m11 tp t p + ts ts

(16)

By combining eq. (16) with eq. (2), the wavelength-dependent DOP for TFBGs with dierent tilt angles can be studied. Figure 8 shows the DOP in a wavelength range of 200 nm for three angles. In simulations, the grating length is 5 cm and = 1 103 . Comparing the three curves in Figure 8, we nd that the DOP for

Figure 8

The wavelength-dependent DOP of unpolarized light after passing through the TFBGs with dierent tilt angles.

Figure 9

The DOP of unpolarized light after passing through the TFBG at 1550 nm versus (a) grating lengths and (b)

index modulation amplitudes for three s.

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= 45 is the largest and the maximum point in 45 curve can reach about 0.834. The calculations further demonstrate that TFBGs exert strong polarization-dependent eects especially when the tilt angle reaches 45 . The DOP can also be increased with the grating length or index modulation depth. The variations of DOP with grating length and index change amplitude for the three tilt angles are simulated at 1550 nm and plotted in Figure 9. In Figure 9(a), is xed at 5 104 , and in Figure 9(b) grating length is 5 cm. Comparison of the curves of the three angles in Figure 9 shows that the DOP for 45 grows fastest and rst acquires the value of 1, which means total polarization.

Conclusions

A theoretical investigation of the polarization properties of TFBGs with dierent tilt angles is presented. The wavelength dependent expression of PDL is derived by the combination of the coupled-mode theory and Mueller matrix of TFBGs. To test the expression, the PDL is calculated using the parameters in [4] and the results basically agree with the measured ones in [4]. Then the PDL for TFBGs with dierent tilt angles are simulated and compared. Furthermore, the DOP of an unpolarized light after passing through TFBGs with dierent angles are calculated and compared. The results show that TFBGs with 45 angle have strong polarization sensitivities. In addition, the eects of grating physical parameters on polarization characteristic are discussed. Analysis shows that the TFBG of 45 with proper grating length and index modulation depth can be a candidate for polarization devices in a wide range of applications.

Acknowledgements This work was jointly supported by the High-Tech Research & Development Program of China (Grant No. 2008AA01Z15), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 60771008).

References
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