An efficient TE-TM polarization converter built on a silicon-on-insulator nanophotonic platform is demonstrated. The strong cross-polarization coupling effect in air-cladded photonic-wire waveguides is employed to realize the conversion. A peak TE-TM coupling efficiency of 87percent (-0.6dB insertion loss) is measured experimentally. A polarization conversion efficiency of >92percent with an overall insertion loss of < - 1.6dB is obtained in a wavelength range of 40nm. The proposed device is compact, with a total length of 44 (mu)m and can be fabricated with one lithography and etching step.
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