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| Citation: |
Hu JK, Wu JY, Jin D et al. Integrated photonic polarizers with 2D reduced graphene oxide. Opto-Electron Sci 4, 240032 (2025). doi: 10.29026/oes.2025.240032
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Abstract
Optical polarizers, which allow the transmission of specific polarization states, are essential components in modern optical systems. Here, we experimentally demonstrate integrated photonic polarizers incorporating reduced graphene oxide (rGO) films. 2D graphene oxide (GO) films are integrated onto silicon waveguides and microring resonators (MRRs) with precise control over their thicknesses and sizes, followed by GO reduction via two different methods including uniform thermal reduction and localized photothermal reduction. We measure devices with various lengths, thicknesses, and reduction degrees of GO films. The results show that the devices with rGO exhibit better performance than those with GO, achieving a polarization-dependent loss of ~47 dB and a polarization extinction ratio of ~16 dB for the hybrid waveguides and MRRs with rGO, respectively. By fitting the experimental results with theory, it is found that rGO exhibits more significant anisotropy in loss, with an anisotropy ratio over 4 times that of GO. In addition, rGO shows higher thermal stability and greater robustness to photothermal reduction than GO. These results highlight the strong potential of rGO films for implementing high-performance polarization selective devices in integrated photonic platforms.-
Keywords:
- integrated optics /
- 2D materials /
- graphene oxide /
- optical polarizers
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References
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Hu JK, Wu JY, Jin D et al. Integrated photonic polarizers with 2D reduced graphene oxide. Opto-Electron Sci 4, 240032 (2025). doi: 10.29026/oes.2025.240032
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Figure 1.
(a) Schematics of atomic structures and bandgaps of graphene oxide (GO), semi-reduced GO (srGO), and highly reduced GO (hrGO). (b) Schematic illustration of a GO-coated silicon waveguide as an optical polarizer. Inset illustrates the layered GO film structure fabricated by self-assembly. (c) TE and TM mode profiles for the hybrid waveguide with 2 layers of GO. (d) Microscopic image of a GO-coated silicon-on-insulator (SOI) chip with opened windows. Inset shows a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the layered GO film, where numbers (1‒4) refer to the number of layers for that part of the image. (e) Measured Raman spectra of the SOI chip in (d) without GO and with 2 layers of GO.
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Figure 2.
(a) Measured insertion loss (IL) versus GO film length (LGO) for the hybrid waveguides with a monolayer GO film (N =1) after the chip was heated at various temperatures TR. (b) Measured IL versus TR for the waveguides with 1−2 layers of GO (N =1, 2). In (a) and (b), (i) and (ii) show the corresponding results for TE and TM polarizations, respectively. (iii) shows the polarization dependent loss (PDL) calculated from (i) and (ii). (c) Polar diagrams for the measured IL of devices with (i) 1 and (ii) 2 layers of GO after the chip was heated at various temperatures TR. In (a‒c), the input continuous-wave (CW) power and wavelength were ~0 dBm and ~
1550 nm, respectively. In (b) and (c), LGO = ~0.4 mm. -
Figure 3.
(a) TE- and TM-polarized propagation loss (PL) versus TR for the hybrid waveguides with 1 and 2 layers of GO (N = 1, 2). (b) Extinction coefficients (k's) of 2D GO films versus TR obtained by fitting the results in (a) with optical mode simulations. (c) Anisotropy ratios of k values for TE and TM polarizations (kTE / kTM) extracted from (b). (d) Measured (Exp.) and simulated (Sim.) PDL versus TR for the waveguides with 1−2 layers of GO (N = 1, 2). The simulated PDL values were obtained by using the same k value for both TE and TM polarizations. (e) Fractional contributions (η's) to the overall PDL from polarization-dependent mode overlap and material loss anisotropy, which were extracted from (d). (e-i) and (e-ii) show the results for N = 1 and 2, respectively.
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Figure 4.
(a) Measured (i) TE- and TM-polarized IL and (ii) calculated PDL versus input power (Pin) for the hybrid waveguide with 1 layer of GO. (b, c) Measured (i) TE- and TM-polarized IL and (ii) calculated PDL versus Pin for the waveguide with 1 layer of rGO after heating at TR = ~100 °C and ~200 °C, respectively. (d) Measured (i) TE- and TM-polarized IL and (ii) calculated PDL versus Pin for the waveguide with 2 layers of GO. In (a‒d), the red and blue shaded areas in (i) indicate the power ranges associated with reversible GO reduction for TE and TM polarizations, respectively. (e) Measured PDL versus input CW wavelength for the waveguide with 1 layer of unreduced GO, rGO at TR = ~100 °C, and rGO at TR = ~200 °C. In (a‒e), the GO film length was ~0.4 mm. In (a‒d), the input CW wavelength was ~
1550 nm. In (e), the input CW power was Pin = ~0 dBm. -
Figure 5.
(a) Schematic of a silicon microring resonator (MRR) coated with rGO films as an MRR polarizer. (b) Microscopic image of a silicon MRR coated with 1 layer of unreduced GO. (c) Measured (i) TE- and (ii) TM-polarized transmission spectra of the MRR with 1 layer of GO at different degrees of reduction. The same hybrid MRR underwent heating at temperatures TR ranging from ~50 to 200 °C prior to the measurement. The corresponding results measured at room temperature before heating (initial) are also shown for comparison. (d) Extinction ratios (ERs) of the MRRs extracted from (c). (e) Polarization extinction ratios (PER's) extracted from (d). In (c‒e), the CW input power was Pin = ~−10 dBm.
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Figure 6.
(a) Measured TE- and TM-polarized ER versus input CW pump power Pp for the hybrid MRR with 1 layer of GO at different degrees of reduction. (i‒iii) Show the results measured for the same hybrid MRR with 1 layer of GO, rGO after heating at TR = ~100 °C, and rGO after heating at ~200 °C, respectively. (b) PER's extracted from (a). In (a, b), the red and blue shaded areas indicate the power ranges associated with reversible GO reduction for TE and TM polarizations, respectively.
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Figure 7.
(a) Extinction coefficients (k's) of GO versus Pp obtained by fitting the results in Fig. 6(a) with optical mode simulations. (i ‒ iii) show the results for GO, rGO after heating at TR = ~100 °C, and rGO after heating at ~200 °C, respectively. (b) Anisotropy ratios of k values for TE and TM polarizations (kTE / kTM) extracted from (a).
