Patent ID: 8326094

Claim:
An optical device, comprising: a light-transmitting medium defining a waveguide having a sensing portion and a non-sensing portion of the waveguide, the portion of the light transmitting medium that defines the non-sensing portion of the waveguide being continuous with the portion of the light-transmitting medium that defines the non-sensing portion of the waveguide, the light-transmitting medium that defines the sensing portion of the waveguide having defects that provide the light-absorptive region with a deep band gap level between a valence band of the light-transmitting medium and a conduction band of the light-transmitting medium, the deep band gap level configured such that the waveguide guiding light signals through the light-transmitting medium in the sensing portion causes free carriers to be generated in the light-transmitting medium, the light transmitting medium that defines the non-sensing portion of the waveguide excluding the defects, and the light-transmitting medium and/or the dimensions of the light-transmitting medium are selected so as to provide similar confinement factors for both the TE and TM modes of the light signals such that the detection of light thereby is substantially polarization independent.