Symmetric three-branch optical power divider with a coupling gap

Proposed is a nea fork-type three-branch optical power divider consisting o f two different dielectric materials. The structure is composed of a symmet ric Y-branch waveguide with a phase front retarder and a center branch loca ted a coupling gap apart. The present power divider suffers minimum radiati on losses as compared to previously reported fork-type three-branch devices consisting of two dielectric materials. Numerical simulations are carried out with a finite difference beam propagation analysis for representative t hree different sets of significant structural parameters as the refractive index and waveguide width. Numerical results also contain the power dividin g characteristics for the case where sharp wedges of index distribution are blunted.