Design of a compact polarization splitter based on the dual-elliptical-core photonic crystal fiber

•We propose a compact polarization splitter based on the dual-elliptical-core PCF.•The introduction of two elliptical cores efficiently enhances the birefringence.•Three modulation holes control the power transfer between two elliptical cores.•A splitter length of 775 μm is achieved with bandwidth of 32 nm covering C-band.•Up to 50 dB extinction ratio is achieved at the central wavelength of 1.55 μm.

We propose a compact polarization splitter based on dual-elliptical-core photonic crystal fiber. Two elliptical cores are introduced to increase the difference of effective index between x-polarized and y-polarized mode and three elliptical modulation air holes are used to control the power transfer between the two cores. By optimizing the structure parameters, the length of the polarization splitter is distinctly shortened. Numerical results demonstrate that the compact splitter has the length of 775 μm and up to 50 dB extinction ratio at the central wavelength of 1.55 μm. The corresponding bandwidth of 32 nm could be achieved from the wavelength of 1.534–1.566 μm with the extinction ratio over 20 dB