Broadband 1×2 liquid crystal router with low thermal dependence for polymer optical fiber networks

A 1×2 optical router based on an achromatic liquid crystal polarization rotator has been designed and experimentally tested. The router can work in the spectral range used in step-index polymer optical fiber networks (400-700 nm) with low wavelength and temperature dependences. The theoretical design is fast and simple and has good agreement with experimental results. Experimental crosstalk is lower than −18.68 dB for both outputs, even with thermal variations of 10 °C. Performance improvement with respect to previously reported devices with similar structure has also been analyzed.