Transmission of slow light through photonic crystal waveguide bends

The spectral dependence of the bending loss of cascaded 60 degrees bends in photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides is explored in a slab-type silicon-on-insulator system. An ultralow bending loss of (0.05 +/- 0.03) dB/bend is measured at wavelengths corresponding to the nearly dispersionless transmission regime. In contrast, the PhC bend is found to become completely opaque for wavelengths corresponding to the slow-light regime. A general strategy is presented and experimentally verified to optimize the bend design for improved slow-light transmission.     

Semi-analytic method for slow light photonic crystal waveguide design

We present a semi-analytic method to calculate the dispersion curves and the group velocity of photonic crystal waveguide modes in two-dimensional geometries. We model the waveguide as a homogenous strip, surrounded by photonic crystal acting as diffracting mirrors. Following conventional guided-wave optics, the properties of the photonic crystal waveguide may be calculated from the phase upon propagation over the strip and the phase upon reflection. The cases of interest require a theory including the specular order and one other diffracted reflected order. The computational advantages let us scan a large parameter space, allowing us to find novel types of solutions.     

Dispersion engineered slot photonic crystal waveguides for slow light operation

We introduce a novel design of wide Slot Photonic Crystal Waveguides (SPCW) by structuring the slot as a comb. This allows performing dispersion engineering in order to achieve very low group velocities over a few nanometers bandwidth. This kind of SPCW offers opportunities to realize devices requiring strong interactions between light and an optically nonlinear low index material by providing an ultrahigh optical density while easing the filling of the slot due to its width. We will present dispersion engineering results by the plane wave expansion method and finite difference time domain analysis, followed by experimental realization.     

一种新型无色散慢光光子晶体薄板波导

利用椭圆形孔替代传统光子晶体薄板波导中邻接波导的最内层两排圆孔构成一种新型低损耗光子晶体薄板光波导.该波导的群速度和群速度色散特性强烈依赖于波导中这两排邻接波导的椭圆孔的特性.借助波导导模展开方法,计算得到波导的能带结构和群指数,并分析了它们与椭圆孔的参数关系.通过优化这些椭圆孔的参数,可以增加光子晶体光波导导模在光锥以下的无固有传输损耗带宽,在2—45 nm 的带宽上实现无色散的常数群速度.这些理论结果将为低损耗低色散慢光波导的设计制造提供理论基础.     

一种新型无色散慢光光子晶体薄板波导

利用椭圆形孔替代传统光子晶体薄板波导中邻接波导的最内层两排圆孔构成一种新型低损耗光子晶体薄板光波导.该波导的群速度和群速度色散特性强烈依赖于波导中这两排邻接波导的椭圆孔的特性.借助波导导模展开方法,计算得到波导的能带结构和群指数,并分析了它们与椭圆孔的参数关系.通过优化这些椭圆孔的参数,可以增加光子晶体光波导导模在光锥以下的无固有传输损耗带宽,在2—45 nm 的带宽上实现无色散的常数群速度.这些理论结果将为低损耗低色散慢光波导的设计制造提供理论基础. 关键词： 光子晶体薄板波导 群速度 群指数 群速度色散     

Wideband and low dispersion slow light in slotted photonic crystal waveguide

We present a procedure to generate wideband and low dispersion slow light in slotted photonic crystal waveguide. By shifting the first and second rows of air holes of slotted photonic crystal waveguide, the bandwidth of slow light can be increased, with small group velocity dispersion. Using 2D plane wave expansion method, we numerically demonstrate slow light with the nearly constant group indices of 23, 42, and 54 over 17.6 nm, 6.7 nm and 3.3 nm bandwidth, respectively. The maximal normalized delay-bandwidth product is 0.26. From the fabrication's point of review, shifting the position of holes is easier to be controlled technically than changing the diameters of air holes. In addition, our simulations suggest this design is tolerant to deviation for positions of the first two rows of air holes. Therefore, the proposed approach decreases the dependence on the fabrication accuracy.     

慢光在光子晶体弯折波导中的高透射传播

研究了慢光模式在SOI(silicon-on-insulator)材料光子晶体线缺陷弯折波导中的传输特性. 通过优化波导弯折处的结构参数,慢光模式在光子晶体60°与120°弯折波导中的透射率提高10倍以上,归一化透射率分别达到80%和60%以上. 为了进一步减慢光速,设计了新颖的高Q值耦合腔弯折波导结构,在归一化透射率达到75%的基础上,光波群速度低至c/170(c为真空光速). 研究结果对于增强光子晶体的慢光效应,提高光子晶体慢光器件的微型化和集成化都有一定的积 关键词： 光子晶体 慢光 弯折波导 透射率     

Ultra-compact variable optical attenuator based on slow light photonic crystal waveguide

An ultra-compact variable optical attenuator based on slow light photonic crystal waveguide with thermooptic effect is demonstrated. Along with power consumption of as low as 30.7 mW, a variable attenuation range of 10 dB is experimentally achieved by shifting the transmission spectrum at about 4.6 nm. The length of the proposed device is only 20 μm.     

Uniform silicon slow light waveguide

An uniform silicon waveguide is proposed featuring ultralow-dispersion slow light. The core of the waveguide consists of one silicon trip and two pairs of air/silicon strip and the cladding is composed of several alternative silicon and air strips, which form a transverse band gap to confine propagating light in the core. The waveguide has several nearly linear photonic bands in a large frequency range, which can support broadband slow modes with a group velocity of 0.03–0.08c and tolerable group velocity dispersion.     

High-purity transmission of a slow light odd mode in a photonic crystal waveguide

We demonstrate a novel scheme to control the excitation symmetry for an odd mode in a photonic crystal waveguide and investigate the spectral signature of this slow light mode. An odd-mode Mach-Zehnder coupler is introduced to transform mode symmetry and excite a high-purity odd mode with 20?dB signal contrast over the background. Assisted by a mixed-mode Mach-Zehnder coupler, slow light mode beating can be observed and is utilized to determine the group index of this odd mode. With slow light enhancement, this odd mode can help enable novel miniaturized devices such as one-way waveguides.     

Liquid refractive index sensor based on slow light in slotted photonic crystal waveguide

A high sensitive and compact refractive index sensor based on slotted photonic crystal waveguide (S-PhCW) is demonstrated. This design is worked on a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) configuration with S-PhCW as the measuring arm, which can be used to detect any changes in refractive index that correspond to different concentration of the measuring liquid. Combining the slow light enhancement in photonic crystal waveguide (PhCW) with the advantage of excellent optical confinement in slot waveguide, the sensitivity of this simple scheme can reach to 2.3 × 10⁹ nm/RIU with the active region of only 1 mm long.     

Dispersionless slow light by photonic crystal slab waveguide with innermost elliptical air holes

We report a low-loss photonic crystal slab waveguide formed by deforming the innermost circle air holes in the conventional photonic crystal slab waveguide into elliptical ones. We obtain the photonic bands and group index of guided modes in this photonic crystal waveguide by guided-mode expansion method and investigate the dependence of photonic bands and group index of guided modes on the parameters of the innermost elliptical air holes. The group velocity and group velocity dispersion of this waveguide strongly depend on the innermost elliptical air holes. Photonic crystal slab waveguide with the optimum innermost elliptical air holes possesses a wider single mode region below the light line, in which light can easily propagate without intrinsic loss. At the same time, the guided mode supported by this waveguide has nearly constant group velocity and vanishing group velocity dispersion in a 3-5 nm bandwidth.     

Numerical demonstration of slow light tuning in slotted photonic crystal waveguide using microfluidic infiltration

Tuning of the operating wavelength of slow light in the slotted photonic crystal waveguide using microfluidic infiltration has been investigated. Using 2D plane wave expansion method, we numerically demonstrate that the operating wavelength can be shifted from the C to L band, simply by choosing the refractive index of the infiltrated fluid. It is also found that, as the refractive index of the infiltrated fluid changes, the group velocity dispersion has slight variation at different operating wavelength. This design opens the possibility for post-fabrication scheme of tuning the operating wavelength of slow light in slotted photonic crystal waveguide, and allows the device to be optimized for different applications.     

Nonlinear performance in silicon nitride slow light photonic crystal waveguides with elliptical holes

We propose a slow-light photonic crystal waveguide, which uses a combination of circular and elliptical air holes arranged in a hexagonal lattice with the background material of silicon nitride (refractive index n = 2.06). Large value of normalized delay bandwidth product (NDBP = 0.3708) is obtained. We have analyzed nonlinear performance of the structure. With our proposed geometry strong SPM is observed at moderate peak power levels. Proposed photonic crystal waveguide has slow light applications such as reduction in length and power consumption of all-optical and electro-optic switches at optical frequency.     

Investigation of slow light enhanced nonlinear transmission for all-optical regeneration in silicon photonic crystal waveguides at 10 Gbit/s

We demonstrate bit error rate improvement, corroborated by eye diagram measurements, of a (10 MHz) amplitude distorted 10 Gbit/s data signal in silicon photonic crystal waveguides. This demonstration exploits a power clamping nonlinear transfer function, provided by slow light enhancement of nonlinear absorption in these waveguides.     

Dispersion optimization of slow light in slotted photonic crystal waveguide by selective air holes infiltration

This work proposed a methodology based on the liquid infiltration of slotted photonic crystal waveguide (SPCW). By choosing the refractive index that infiltrated in the first and second rows of air holes adjacent to the slot, respectively, SPCW was optimized to possess wideband slow light with large group index and low dispersion. The properties of SPCW were numerically simulated by plane wave expansion (PWE) method and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Simulation results showed that the designed SPCW could control the group index for the same SPCW with the nearly constant group index of 50, 68, 81, 150, and 200 over 7.5 nm, 5.5 nm, 3.1 nm, 1.65 nm, and 1.15 nm. In addition, we demonstrated that this post-fabrication liquid infiltrated technology has the potential for realizing reconfigurable and tunable SPCW, in which the flexible wavelength range of SPCW can also be controlled by different liquid infiltration.     

Ultracompact refractive index sensor based on microcavity in the sandwiched photonic crystal waveguide structure

A refractive index (RI) sensor based on the two-dimensional photonic crystal is presented. The sensor is formed by a point-defect resonant cavity in the sandwiched waveguide structure. The transmission spectrums of the sensor with different ambient refractive indices ranging from n = 1.0 to n = 1.6 are calculated. The calculation results show that a change in ambient RI of Δn = 0.001 is apparent, the sensitivity of the sensor (Δλ/Δn) is achieved with 330 nm/RIU (when lattice constant a = 440 nm), where RIU means the refractive index unit; and the transmission efficiency in the RI range of 1.0-1.6 can reach about 40% to 70%, that make the detection of spectrum easy and feasible. The properties of the sensor are analyzed and calculated using the plane-wave expansion (PWE) method and simulated using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method.     

Ultracompact high-efficiency polarizing beam splitter with a hybrid photonic crystal and conventional waveguide structure

We propose an ultracompact high-efficiency polarizing beam splitter that operates over a wide wavelength range and is based on a hybrid photonic crystal and a conventional waveguide structure. Within a small area (15 microm x 10 microm), this polarizing beam splitter separates TM- and TE-polarized modes into orthogonal output waveguides. Results of simulations with the two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method show that 99.3% of TM-polarized light is deflected by the photonic crystal structure (with a 28.0-dB extinction ratio), whereas 99.0% of TE-polarized light propagates through the structure (with a 32.2-dB extinction ratio). Wave vector diagrams are employed to explain the operation of a polarizing beam splitter. Tolerance analysis reveals a large tolerance to fabrication errors.     

基于六角格子光子晶体波导的高效全光二极管设计

提出了一种基于六角格子光子晶体波导微腔和Fabry-Perot(FP)腔非对称耦合的全光二极管结构, 它由一个包含非线性Kerr介质的高Q值微腔与一个光子晶体波导中的FP腔组成. 通过有限时域差分方法对其传输特性进行了仿真, 发现通过两腔的非对称耦合可以实现在特定光强度下的正向传输、反向截止的功能. 在靠近微腔方向光入射时, 特定强度的光可以激发非线性微腔的Kerr效应, 改变了Fano腔的共振频率, 从而变成透射状态. 而远离微腔方向光入射, 由于这个不对称的结构造成场局域的分布不对称, 激发微腔Kerr效应的光强还不够, 所以光不能透射. 所设计的全光二极管结构具有良好的性能参数: 最大透射率高和高透射比、光强阈值低和易于集成等.