Integrated photonic polarization synthesizer and analyzer

Valdez et al. Light: Science & Applications (2026) 15:309 www.nature.com/lsa https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02405-3 A R T I C L E O p e n A c c e s s Integrated photonic polarization synthesizer and analyzer Carson G. Valdez 1✉, Anna J. Miller1, Anne R. Kroo1, Charles Roques-Carmes 1, David A. B. Miller 1 and Olav Solgaard 1 Abstract Polarization-resolved control and measurement of optical fields are essential for a wide range of photonic systems, including coherent communication, polarimetric sensing, and quantum information processing. We present a photonic integrated circuit architecture that enables the generation and analysis of arbitrary polarization states. The device provides reconfigurable access to the full polarization degree of freedom of coherent light within a single integrated platform. We experimentally demonstrate arbitrary polarization state generation spanning the Poincaré sphere, as well as Stokes vector measurement on a chip. Unlike conventional Stokes measurements that rely on direct detection, the polarization state in this architecture is inferred from the phase settings required to interferometrically combine polarization-demultiplexed optical fields. As a result, the optical signal itself does not need to be detected or absorbed and remains available for subsequent optical-domain processing. The devices are fabricated in a commercial foundry using CMOS-compatible processes, enabling scalable and reproducible integration. By combining polarization generation and analysis in a compact and stable photonic circuit, this work eliminates the need for external polarization optics and provides a foundation for robust, polarization-enabled photonic integrated systems. Introduction Polarization is a fundamental degree of freedom of light and plays a central role in a wide range of optical systems, from classical and quantum communications1–3 to sen- sing4, imaging5–7, and metrology8. The ability to generate, manipulate, and analyze arbitrary polarization states enables advanced functionalities such as polarization- division multiplexing, polarization-resolved coherent detection, ellipsometry, and polarimetric imaging. As photonic systems continue to scale in complexity and performance, precise and reconfigurable control over polarization has become increasingly important. An integrated platform that can both generate and