Villafranca Velasco, AitorCalvo Padilla, María LuisaCheben, PavelOrtega Moñux, AlejandroAlonso Ramos, Carlos AlbertoMolina fernández, ÍñigoLapointe, JeanVachon, MartinJanz, SiegfriedXu, Dan-Xia2023-06-202023-06-202012-02-010146-959210.1364/OL.37.000365https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/44172© 2012 Optical Society of America. Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) is acknowledged under grants TEC2008-04105 and TEC2009-10152.The design and fabrication of an ultracompact silicon-on-insulator polarization converter is reported. The polarization conversion with an extinction ratio of 16 dB is achieved for a conversion length of only 10 mu m. Polarization rotation is achieved by inducing a vertical asymmetry by forming in the waveguide core two subwavelength trenches of different depths. By taking advantage of the calibrated reactive ion etch lag, the two depths are implemented using a single mask and etching process. The measured converter loss is -0.7 dB and the 3 dB bandwidth is 26 nm.engjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.37.000365http://www.opticsinfobase.org/open access535Mode ConverterRotatorEfficientÓptica (Física)2209.19 Óptica Física