A scheme for optical circulator by using asymmetric Y-branch waveguide structures

- A novel scheme for optical circulator is presented.
- The optical circulator exhibits high optical extinction ratio and low optical loss.
- The dependence of the operation wavelength and polarization are weak.
- The advantages include simple structure, large fabrication tolerance and reconfigurable port number.

A novel scheme for optical circulator is proposed, in which the asymmetric Y-branch waveguide structures are employed to achieve the optical unidirectional propagation. The optical performance of our optical circulator is numerically investigated by using the beam propagation method. The simulated results show that not only high optical extinction ratio and low optical loss for both TE and TM modes can be easily realized, but the dependence of the operation wavelength and polarization is very weak in our configuration. Particularly, the proposed optical circulator has several advantages such as simple structure, reconfigurable port number and large fabrication tolerance, which is very useful for design and fabrication. This novel device provides a new way to achieve optical circulation propagation function, and has wide potential applications in photonic integrated systems.