Two-dimensional photonic crystal couplers for unidirectional light output

We investigate the use of two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs to improve the directionality of output coupling from planar waveguides and distributed-feedback lasers. We present the theory underlying the operation of such structures and design criteria for emission in desired directions. As an example, we demonstrate a vertical coupler that is integrated with an organic distributed-feedback laser, use computer simulations to find its coupling constant and efficiency, and then discuss its feasibility.     

Optical control of light propagation in photonic crystal based on electromagnetically induced transparency

A kind of photonic crystal structure with modulation of the refractive index is investigated both experimentally and theoretically for exploiting electromagnetically induced transparency(EIT).The combination of EIT with periodically modulated refractive index medium gives rise to high efficiency reflection as well as forbidden transmission in a threelevel atomic system coupled by standing wave.We show an accurate theoretical simulation via transfer-matrix theory,automatically accounting for multilayer reflections,thus fully demonstrate the existence of photonic crystal structure in atomic vapor.     

Polarization-independent unidirectional light transmission by an annular photonic crystal prism

Unidirectional transmission of light irrespective of its polarization by a two-dimensional annular photonic crystal in the form of a right prism is numerically demonstrated. Band structure of the crystal obtained through the plane-wave expansion method reveals a directional band gap along a principal axis, leading to prohibition of wave transmission in the reverse direction. In the forward direction, however, transmission of waves is facilitated by circumventing the directional band gap due to altered surface orientation. Polarization-independent unidirectional light transmission is demonstrated through finite-difference time-domain simulations. Unidirectional operation is enhanced and the polarization independence is established through the introduction of an anti-reflection coating layer, which increases the forward transmittances for both polarizations up to 0.44, such that a contrast ratio of 0.96 is attained at a free-space wavelength of 1.55 μm. Although polarization independence deteriorates, unidirectionality is preserved between 1.45 μm and 1.60 μm, provided that the angle of incidence remains between ?5° and +5°. Device performance is also influenced by the transverse source size, where leakage in the reverse direction may be suffered if the source width is beyond a critical value.     

Tunable properties of light propagation in photonic liquid crystal fibers

Tunable properties of light propagation in photonic crystal fibers filled with liquid crystals, called photonic liquid crystal fibers (PLCFs) are presented. The propagation properties of PLCFs strongly depend on contrast between refractive indices of the solid core (pure silica glass) and liquid crystals (LCs) filing the holes of the fiber. Due to relatively strong thermo-optical effect, we can change the refractive index of the LC by changing its temperature. Numerical analysis of light propagation in PLCF, based on two simulation methods, such as finite difference (FD) and multipole method (MM) is presented. The numerical results obtained are in good agreement with our earlier experimental results presented elsewhere [1].     

Soliton-like propagation of light pulses in a nonlinear photonic crystal

On the basis of computer simulation, we analyze the dynamics of interaction of subpulses localized inside certain layers of a one-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal. Localized subpulses are shown to move and interact like solitons. Possible scenarios of their interaction are described: a spatially periodic regime, the merging of several subpulses with similar characteristics into a single higher intensity and more slowly propagating subpulse, and the formation of an immovable pulse in a layer of the photonic crystal. To verify the results of the computer simulation and to elucidate the nature of spatially localized structures forming, a comparison with the analytical solution for a medium with cubic nonlinearity is performed.     

可用于拓宽光波单向传输带宽的光子晶体异质结构界面

基于光波单向传输的全光二极管在集成光通信、全光网络和光信息处理中有重要应用.基于方向带隙失配设计的光子晶体异质结构可实现光波单向传输,但正向透射率较低,带宽较窄.基于对光子晶体异质界面倾斜角度的研究,根据界面全反射条件,利用可集成材料硅和二氧化硅设计了一种空气孔型二维光子晶体异质结构.异质结构界面两侧的光子晶体对1550 nm波长附近的TE模光波在Γ-X方向均呈导带,避免了方向带隙失配.研究发现当异质界面满足全反射条件时,由于光子晶体的自准直效应,较宽波段的正向光波得以高效传播,而反向光波在界面由于全反射而被禁止传播.光子晶体异质结构界面的全反射效应打破了方向带隙对光波单向传输的限制,使得反向光波在光子晶体中为导带时同样可实现近零透射率,从而拓宽了光波单向传输的波长范围.基于全反射界面的光子晶体异质结构经过优化后,其正向透射率达0.64,透射对比度为0.97,单向传输带宽可达553 nm.     

Chirped photonic crystal with different symmetries for asymmetric light propagation

In the present paper, we have carried out analysis of asymmetric light propagation in a chirped photonic crystal waveguide. The designed structures have hexagonal arrangement and square arrangement of silicon rods in air substrate. Dimensions of the defect rods are tailored, so that the proposed design structure works as an optical isolator. The transmission analysis of the structure reveals that it can act as an optical diode. We have plotted the extinction ratio and transmission analysis graphs for the structure, and it has been observed that the maximum output is obtained for telecom wavelength of 1.55 μm. Dispersion curves are obtained using the plane wave expansion method, and the transmission is simulated using finite element method. The proposed structures are applicable for photonic integrated circuits due to their simple and clear operating principle.     

二维三角晶格光子晶体波导的出射光集束传播

为了解决光子晶体波导出射端光场控制, 同时解决二维三角晶格光子晶体波导出射光辐射困难的问题。利用二维三角晶格光子晶体设计了一种新型光子晶体波导出射口结构。在二维三角晶格光子晶体波导出射端引入两个微腔, 通过光波与微腔发生共振, 形成类似于三个点光源干涉的出射光, 同时进一步提出波导出射端喇叭口干涉出射光定向辐射的设计。通过这种微腔喇叭口设计, 利用时域有限差分法分析结果表明光波实现很好的定向辐射, 并且辐射距离显著提高。     

Coupling between opposite-parity modes in parallel photonic crystal waveguides and its application in unidirectional light transmission

Directional coupling between the even- and odd-parity modes of two parallel dissimilar linear defect waveguides in a square photonic crystal of cylindrical air holes in dielectric background is numerically demonstrated. Projected band-structure computations through the plane-wave expansion method reveal that high-efficiency coupling can be achieved in a frequency range of approximately 9 % extent around the central frequency. Coupling occurs if one row of spacing is maintained between the waveguides supporting even and odd modes, which are composed of annular air holes with outer radii equal to the photonic crystal’s scatterer radii and inner radii of 0.19 and 0.44 periods, respectively. Extinction ratio for coupling from the even to odd mode at the central frequency is 4.0 dB. Coupling length calculated through finite-difference time-domain simulations is approximately 25 periods at the central frequency, in agreement with the estimation through band diagram. Unidirectional light transmission is also demonstrated through finite-difference time-domain simulations, provided that waveguide and coupling lengths are equal. Forward and reverse transmittances of 71 and 0.3 %, respectively, are achieved at the central operation frequency in a 25-period system.     

Influence of the core size on light propagation in photonic liquid crystal fibers

In this paper analyses of mode distribution, confinement and experimental losses of the photonic crystal fibers with different core sizes infiltrated with liquid crystal are presented. Four types of fibers are compared: with single-, seven-, nineteen- and thirty seven solid rods forming the core in the same hexagonal lattice of seven “rings” of unit cells (rods or capillaries). The experimental results confirming the influence of the core diameter on light propagation are also included. The diameter of cores determines not only the number of modes in the photonic liquid crystal fiber but also is correlated with experimentally observed attenuation. For fibers with larger cores confinement losses are expected to be higher, but the measured attenuation is smaller because the impact of liquid crystal material losses and scattering is smaller.     

Optical wave propagation in photonic crystal metamaterials

Metamaterials that provide negative refraction can be implemented in photonic crystals (PhCs) through careful design of the devices. Theoretically, we demonstrate that the dispersion can be altered to achieve negative refraction. This can be done through engineering the geometry of the device as well as selecting appropriate materials. The PhC also demonstrates slow light that facilitate sensing chemicals or biological agents. Using metallic materials such as gold nano-particle enables PhCs to guide optical waves in desired pathways. Also using magnetic materials such as highly doped n-GaAs, we can tune the band gap by changing magnetic field. The simulated results are consistent with some of the previously reported experimental results and give us guidance for future experiments.     

Anomalous propagation loss in photonic crystal waveguides

Propagation loss can occur in photonic crystal waveguides without complete optical confinement. We employ a highly efficient transfer-matrix method which allows for accurate and reliable extraction of the propagation loss even at an extremely low level. The results for a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide shows that the loss exponentially decays via the waveguide wall thickness. An anomalous phenomenon is found where the loss for guided modes near the upper band gap edge can be several orders of magnitude smaller than that for modes in the middle of the band gap. This anomaly can be well explained by the localization degree of guided modes at different frequency domains.     

Enhanced slow light propagation in photonic crystal waveguides using angular properties of scatter elements

Applicability of the angular properties of scatter elements as a tool to achieve improved slow light performance with small group velocity dispersion and large bandwidth in photonic crystal waveguides is investigated. A polyatomic photonic crystal waveguide, including two scatter elements with different geometrical shapes in each primitive cell, is proposed to investigate the feasibility of our method. Numerical results show that a versatile control of the dispersion relation of slow light modes, with large normalized delay-bandwidth products ranging from 0.2085 to 0.3394, can be obtained using a unique geometrical parameter.     

二维平板光子晶体直波导的制备和光传输特性的测量

利用聚焦离子束刻蚀的方法在SOI(silicon on insulator)基片上制备了W3型二维光子晶体直波导.观察并测量了近红外激光通过光子晶体波导的散射图形和透过谱.实验结果说明，激光在有引入引出脊形波导的光子晶体直波导中具有很好的传输特性. 关键词： 光子晶体波导 光子带隙 脊型波导     

Lateral stress-induced propagation characteristics in photonic crystal fibres

Using the finite element method, this paper investigates lateral stress-induced propagation characteristics in a photonic crystal fibre of hexagonal symmetry. The results of simulation show the strong stress dependence of effective index of the fundamental guided mode, phase modal birefringence and confinement loss. It also finds that the contribution of the geometrical effect that is related only to deformation of the photonic crystal fibre and the stress-related contribution to phase modal birefringence and confinement loss are entirely different. Furthermore, polarization-dependent stress sensitivity of confinement loss is proposed in this paper.     

On‐demand photonic crystal resonators

Recent progress in the field of re‐locatable photonic crystal resonators is discussed with a particular emphasis on the flexible scheme that employs highly‐curved microfiber. In this scheme a spectrally‐tunable high‐quality‐factor resonator can be defined repeatedly by physically moving a curved microfiber to a new position. When a curved microfiber is placed on top of a photonic crystal waveguide (or photonic crystal), a photonic well is newly created in the vicinity of the contact point. Inside of this photonic well, high‐quality‐factor resonant modes are generated at frequencies below the cutoff edge of the guided mode. The tapered microfiber is an integral part of a single mode optical fiber and efficient out‐coupling is naturally obtained. The sub‐nanometer spectral tuning capability that is available by changing the curvature of the microfiber is also an important characteristic and discussed. This spectrally‐ and spatially‐reconfigurable photonic crystal resonator is expected to be a potential platform for photonic crystal based single photon sources, which enables accurate spatial overlap and spectral overlap with a single quantum dot, together with straightforward photon out‐coupling to the fiber with high efficiency.     

Low loss propagation in slow light photonic crystal waveguides at group indices up to 60

We have designed slow light photonic crystal waveguides operating in a low loss and constant dispersion window of Δλ = 2 nm around λ = 1565 nm with a group index of n_g = 60. We experimentally demonstrate a relatively low propagation loss, of 130 dB/cm, for waveguides up to 800 μm in length. This result is particularly remarkable given that the waveguides were written on an electron-beam lithography tool with a writefield of 100 μm that exhibits stitching errors of typically 10–50 nm. We reduced the impact of these stitching errors by introducing “slow–fast–slow” mode conversion interfaces and show that these interfaces reduce the loss from 320 dB/cm to 130 dB/cm at n_g = 60. This significant improvement highlights the importance of the slow–fast–slow method and shows that high performance slow light waveguides can be realised with lengths much longer than the writing field of a given e-beam lithography tool.     

Room temperature all‐silicon photonic crystal nanocavity light emitting diode at sub‐bandgap wavelengths

Silicon is now firmly established as a high performance photonic material. Its only weakness is the lack of a native electrically driven light emitter that operates CW at room temperature, exhibits a narrow linewidth in the technologically important 1300–1600 nm wavelength window, is small and operates with low power consumption. Here, an electrically pumped all‐silicon nano light source around 1300–1600 nm range is demonstrated at room temperature. Using hydrogen plasma treatment, nano‐scale optically active defects are introduced into silicon, which then feed the photonic crystal nanocavity to enhance the electrically driven emission in a device via Purcell effect. A narrow ( nm) emission line at 1515 nm wavelength with a power density of is observed, which represents the highest spectral power density ever reported from any silicon emitter. A number of possible improvements are also discussed, that make this scheme a very promising light source for optical interconnects and other important silicon photonics applications.     

Dispersion of light in opal photonic crystal

The selective reflection spectra of films prepared from the photonic crystal, i.e., synthetic opal, are investigated. It is revealed that the refractive index changes at the boundaries of the photonic band gap. The wave vector is renormalized as a result of the interaction of the light wave with the periodic structure of the crystal, and the dependence of the frequency on the photon wave vector deviates from a linear behavior. The band gap determined from these data is approximately equal to 1.7 × 10¹⁴ Hz.     

Semianalytic treatment for propagation in finite photonic crystal waveguides

We present a semianalytic theory for the properties of two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides of finite length. For single-mode guides, the transmission spectrum and field intensity can be accurately described by a simple two-parameter model. Analogies are drawn with Fabry-Perot interferometers, and generalized Fresnel coefficients for the interfaces are calculated.