Fully integrated CMOS-compatible polarization analyzer

Polarization measurement has been widely used in material characterization, medical diagnosis and remote sensing. However, existing commercial polarization analyzers are either bulky schemes or operate in non-real time. Recently, various polarization analyzers have been reported using metal metasurface structures, which require elaborate fabrication and additional detection devices. In this paper, a compact and fully integrated silicon polarization analyzer with a photonic crystal-like metastructure for polarization manipulation and four subsequent on-chip photodetectors for light-current conversion is proposed and demonstrated. The input polarization state can be retrieved instantly by calculating four output photocurrents. The proposed polarization analyzer is complementary metal oxide semiconductor-compatible, making it possible for mass production and easy integration with other silicon-based devices monolithically. Experimental verification is also performed for comparison with a commercial polarization analyzer, and deviations of the measured polarization angle are <±1.2%.