ANALYSIS OF POLARIZATION-INDEPENDENT OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS AND FILTERS BASED ON POLARIZATION ROTATION IN PERIODICALLY ASYMMETRIC WAVE-GUIDES

Polarization rotation in periodically asymmetric passive and active wa veguides is described theoretically; the analysis is based on the vect or wave equation and analysis of the coupled mode equations. It is sho wn that these periodically asymmetric active waveguides can be employe d as polarization independent optical amplifiers and that strictly pol arization independent amplifiers require a rotation of an integer mult iple of pi radians. An illustrating example of such an amplifier with a buried waveguide structure suitable for monolithic integration is an alyzed. Polarization insensitive passive Bragg filters employing, in a ddition to the ordinary grating, a periodically asymmetric perturbatio n, are also considered, and polarization rotation in a distributed fee dback laser amplifier filter is discussed.