Low-Loss Fiber-Optic Polarizers

Abstract

We calculate the characteristics (the extinction and loss coefficients) of a fiber-optic polarizer with a metal film and a dielectric buffer layer. It is shown that using the metals, in which the real part of the complex refractive index is much smaller than unity (e.g., silver, gold, and copper), in such polarizers makes it possible to significantly reduce the loss for the fundamental transmitted TE₀ mode compared with the aluminum-film polarizers. In this case, a sufficiently high extinction coefficient is preserved.