An optical waveguide to fiber coupler comprises a substrate, a first
waveguide and a second waveguide. The first and second waveguides are
formed on the substrate and intersect at a right angle. A diffraction
grating structure is formed at the intersection of the first and second
waveguides, such that, when the coupler is physically abutted with a
single mode optical fiber, in operation, a polarization split is obtained
that couples orthogonal modes from the single-mode optical fiber into
single identical modes in the first and second waveguides. Also,
employing the coupler in optical polarization diverse applications
provides for implementing a polarization insensitive photonic integrated
circuit using such diffraction grating structures, such as, for example,
photonic crystals.