Ultra-compact SOS-based bi-metallic TM-pass polarizer

Ultra-compact transverse magnetic (TM)-pass polarizer based on silicon on sapphire (SOS) platform is proposed and analysed. Low power consumption, high linearity and high speed of transmission are the major advantages of the SOS platform in different commercial applications especially in the mid infrared region.The suggested structure has bimetallic configuration of aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO) and zirconium nitride (ZrN) to highly attenuate the quasi transverse electric (TE) mode. This is due to the coupling between the fundamental TE and the surface plasmon modes. However, the transverse magnetic mode can propagate with minimal losses. At 2.0 µm operating wavelength, the proposed TM-pass polarizer realizes 20.3 dB extinction ratio (ER) with 0.14 dB insertion loss (IL) at a device length of 3.0 µm. Therefore, the reported design has advantages of compact length, high efficiency and CMOS-compatibility.