Patent ID: 7035491

Claim:
An optics polarization beam splitter for separating orthogonal components of an incident optical signal using an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer, comprising an input optical coupler to split an incident optical signal, which has two orthogonal polarization states, into a first waveguide branch and a second waveguide branch wherein said first waveguide branch has a birefringent section that exhibits form birefrigence to separate said two orthogonal polarization states and is of core material selected from the group consisting of silicon oxynitride (SiON), silicon nitride, silicon oxycarbide, silicon (Si) and tantalum oxide-silica Ta 2 O 5: SiO 2 ); the upper cladding is of silica (SiO 2 ); and lower cladding is of thermal oxide; and an output optical coupler to combine the optical signals outputted from said first waveguide branch and said second waveguide branch and to output two orthogonal output optical signals, wherein said two orthogonal polarization states are transverse electric (TE) mode and transverse magnetic (TM) mode.