Patent ID: 7356206

Claim:
An optics polarization beam splitter for separating orthogonal components of an incident optical signal, comprising: an input optical coupler to split the incident optical signal, which has two orthogonal polarization states, into a first waveguide branch and a second waveguide branch forming an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer, wherein said first waveguide branch has a birefringent section that exhibits form birefringence to induce a differential phase shift between said two orthogonal polarization states, the birefringent section of the first waveguide branch constructed of core material encapsulated by an upper cladding and a lower cladding with the birefringent section having a core to cladding index contrast being a high index contrast; and an output optical coupler to combine the optical signals outputted from said first waveguide branch and said second waveguide branch to separate said two orthogonal polarization states of the incident optical signal and to output two orthogonal output optical signals.