Silicon Photonic Waveguide Polarizers Integrated With 2D MoS₂ Films

Polarization control is of fundamental importance for modern optical systems, and optical polarizers serve as critical components for enabling this functionality. Here, we experimentally demonstrate optical polarizers by integrating 2D molybdenum disulfide (MoS<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub>) films onto silicon photonic waveguides. High-quality monolayer MoS<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> films with highly anisotropic light absorption are synthesized via a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) method and subsequently transferred onto silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanowire waveguides to fabricate integrated optical polarizers. Detailed measurements are carried out for the fabricated devices with various MoS<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> film coating lengths and silicon waveguide geometry. The results show that a maximum polarization-dependent loss of ∼21 dB is achieved, together with a high figure of merit of ∼4.2. In addition, the hybrid waveguide polarizers exhibit broad operation bandwidth exceeding ∼100 nm and excellent power durability. These results highlight the strong potential for on-chip integration of 2D MoS<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> films to implement high-performance polarization selective devices.