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Main Authors: Afzal, Shirin, Kahloon, Amesh, Barzanjeh, Shabir
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.20053
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author Afzal, Shirin
Kahloon, Amesh
Barzanjeh, Shabir
author_facet Afzal, Shirin
Kahloon, Amesh
Barzanjeh, Shabir
contents The realization of on-chip polarization beam splitters robust to fabrication imperfections remains a key challenge for polarization-sensitive photonic integration. We demonstrate a topologically protected polarization beam splitter based on a Floquet-engineered microring lattice implemented on a CMOS-compatible silicon nitride platform. By tailoring the dispersion of inter-ring coupling, the lattice supports complementary trivial and topological band gaps for orthogonal eigenpolarizations. At telecom wavelengths, TE modes propagate via a topological edge state while TM modes are suppressed by a trivial gap; this behavior reverses at shorter wavelengths. We measure extinction ratios of 16-20 dB for the protected port and 10-20 dB for the non-protected port, with insertion loss of 2 dB at long wavelengths. Reduced TM extinction at shorter wavelengths is attributed to suboptimal input coupling. We further identify spectral regions where both polarizations exhibit nontrivial band gaps, enabling polarization-independent edge transport and establishing a Floquet dual-polarization topological regime. Because operation is governed by band topology rather than geometric fine-tuning, the device shows intrinsic robustness to defects. These results establish polarization-tailored topological lattices as a scalable platform for robust beam splitting, routing, and interconnects in classical and quantum photonic systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_20053
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Topological Polarization Beam Splitter with Polarization-Selective Edge States
Afzal, Shirin
Kahloon, Amesh
Barzanjeh, Shabir
Optics
The realization of on-chip polarization beam splitters robust to fabrication imperfections remains a key challenge for polarization-sensitive photonic integration. We demonstrate a topologically protected polarization beam splitter based on a Floquet-engineered microring lattice implemented on a CMOS-compatible silicon nitride platform. By tailoring the dispersion of inter-ring coupling, the lattice supports complementary trivial and topological band gaps for orthogonal eigenpolarizations. At telecom wavelengths, TE modes propagate via a topological edge state while TM modes are suppressed by a trivial gap; this behavior reverses at shorter wavelengths. We measure extinction ratios of 16-20 dB for the protected port and 10-20 dB for the non-protected port, with insertion loss of 2 dB at long wavelengths. Reduced TM extinction at shorter wavelengths is attributed to suboptimal input coupling. We further identify spectral regions where both polarizations exhibit nontrivial band gaps, enabling polarization-independent edge transport and establishing a Floquet dual-polarization topological regime. Because operation is governed by band topology rather than geometric fine-tuning, the device shows intrinsic robustness to defects. These results establish polarization-tailored topological lattices as a scalable platform for robust beam splitting, routing, and interconnects in classical and quantum photonic systems.
title Topological Polarization Beam Splitter with Polarization-Selective Edge States
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.20053