Polarization insensitive self-homodyne detection receiver

A receiver (11) for Coherent self-homodyne detection (SHD) which comprises:

• a polarization splitter (13) that splits an incoming signal R in two orthogonal components, the two orthogonal components comprising a first component Rx and a second component Ry;
• a first splitter (15) that separates the first component Rx into two separated first components Rx′ and the second component Ry into two separated second components Ry′;
• a 90 degree polarization rotor (17) that rotates polarization of one of the separated first component Rx′ by 90 degrees to obtain a polarization controlled separated first component Rx″;
• a hybrid detector (19) that couples the polarization controlled separated first component Rx″ and the separated second component Ry′, and outputs a first electrical signal Ri and a second electrical signal Rq, the first electrical signal Ri being an in-phase mix between the components Rx″ and Ry′, the second electrical signal Rq being an in-quadrature mix between the components Rx″ and Ry′;
• a first balanced detector (21) that detects the other separated first components Rx′ and the other separated second components Ry′ and outputs a third electrical signal Rd;
• and
• a processor (23) that receives the first electrical signal Ri, the second electrical signal Rq and the third electrical signal Rd and reconstruct an original information signal Rs.