We report a broadband polarization splitter based on polyethylene photonic crystal fiber with microstructured dual refractive index gradient cores. These dual cores consist of a properly optimized arrangement of air holes such that for individual fibers
x
-polarized modes have large effective indices difference, while this index difference is almost zero for their
y
-polarized modes, leading to efficient coupling between the
y
-polarized modes. We have shown that by proper optimization of gradience created in the arrangement of air holes, efficient polarization splitting can be achieved for a broad range of terahertz frequencies. Device length and extinction ratio have been calculated numerically for the proposed configuration. Device length of
∼
1.96
to
∼
60
c
m
was found to be appropriate for frequencies in the 0.4–1.0 THz range to have high extinction ratios:
−
38
to
−
49
d
B
and
−
15
to
−
23
d
B
for the
x
and
y
polarizations, respectively. The bending loss for the proposed design is quite low:
∼
0.05
d
B
/
m
at 1 THz for the bend radius of 1 cm. These results suggest that a compact, low-loss, and broadband polarization splitter with very high extinction ratios can be achieved by wrapping the fiber around a small mandrel.
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