Terahertz modulator using photonic crystals

In this letter, a novel terahertz wave modulator based on a silicon oxide/polyaniline photonic crystal is proposed. The modulation mechanism of the novel modulator is based on a dynamic shift of the photonic band gap by the applied external electric field. Its performances were investigated with the finite-difference time-domain method. The novel modulator has 3 dB modulation bandwidth of 10 kHz, a size as small as 20 mm and its extinction ratio larger than 30 dB at the frequency of 1 THz.     

Diffractionless optical networking in an inverse opal photonic band gap micro-chip

We present a design for a photonic crystal (PC) all-optical micro-chip based on a three-dimensional (3D) inverse opal heterostructure intercalated with a two-dimensional (2D) triangular lattice photonic crystal slab. Within the 2D micro-chip layer, we demonstrate single-mode (diffractionless) waveguiding of light in air, throughout a bandwidth of more than 70 nm near 1.55 μm. This suggests that inverse opal photonic band gap (PBG) materials can facilitate on-chip optical networking functions over the telecommunication frequency band used in current-day optical fibers.     

T-shaped optical circulator based on coupled magneto-optical rods and a side-coupled cavity in a square-lattice photonic crystal

We propose and numerically investigate a kind of high-efficiency T-shaped optical circulator in a two-dimensional square-lattice photonic crystal. In the T-shaped structure, the single-direction light transmission for 90° light-bending is achieved by coupling two magneto-optical rods. And aided with a side-coupled cavity, two paths of single-direction 90° light-bending are effectively combined, which realizes the nonreciprocal light transmission for two waveguides arranged and linked along a straight line. The optical properties of the system are investigated by finite element method. The circulator considered here can be used for isolating light reflections and improving system stabilization in designing photonic crystal integrated circuits.     

Modeling and design of 2D photonic crystal based Y type dual band wavelength demultiplexer

In this paper, photonic bandgap (PBG) induced wave guiding application of photonic crystals is exploited to design Dual Band Wavelength Demultiplexer (DBWD) for separating two telecommunication wavelengths, 1.31 and 1.55 μm. Two designs that use silicon rods in air and embedded air holes in silicon are realized for this purpose. Plane wave expansion (PWE) method and two dimension Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) methods are used to design and analyze the DBWD in Y type photonic crystal structure. Numerical analysis indicates that these designs enable the separation of two wavelengths with very high optical power extinction ratios. Other filter parameters like transmittance and quality factor are also calculated to confirm superior performance of the proposed design of photonic crystal based DBWD.     

Photonic drop splitters based on self-collimation ring resonators in a silicon photonic crystal

We report here 1 × 3 and 1 × 2 photonic drop splitters (PDSs) with different splitting ratios based on self-collimation ring resonators (SCRRs) in an air-hole silicon photonic crystal. An 1 × 3 PDS consists of four beam splitters and an 1 × 2 PDS consists of three beam splitters and one mirror. Light propagates in the PDSs employing self-collimation effect. The theoretical transmission spectra at different drop ports in PDSs were analyzed with the multiple-beam interference theory. Then they were investigated with the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation technique. The simulation results agree well with the theoretical prediction. For the drop wavelength 1550 nm, the free spectral range of the PDSs is about 29 nm, which almost covers the whole optical communication C-band window. Because of small dimensions, air-hole structure and whole-silicon material, the proposed PDSs hold great potentials for applications in photonic integrated circuits.     

Optical properties of arrays of Si nanopillars on the (1 0 0) surface of crystalline Si

We studied Si nanopillars arrays interesting for potential applications in both photonics and electronics. Two types of the Si nanopillars arrays were investigated. The first type is a regular array (square lattice with the spacing of 270 nm) made up of nanopillars with diameters of 60–70 nm (non-quantum nanopillars). Polarized reflection spectra displaying photonic band gap features and the corresponding photonic band structures were studied. The second type is a non-regular array made up of nanopillars with diameters of 10–20 nm (quantum nanopillars). Enhancement of the optical phonon Raman band, change of selection rules and a low-frequency shift of 0.5 cm⁻¹ of the band corresponding to the quantum size effect in Si cylinders with average diameter 15 nm were observed for the quantum nanopillars.     

Laser nanosources based on planar photonic crystals as new platforms for nanophotonic devices

Two-dimensional photonic crystal lasers have been fabricated on III–V semiconductor slabs. Tuning of the spontaneous emission in micro and nanocavities has been achieved by accurate control of the slab thickness. Different structures, some of them of new application to photonic crystal lasers, have been fabricated like the Suzuki-phase or the coupled-cavity ring-like resonators. Laser emission has been obtained by pulsed optical pumping. Optical characterization of the lasing modes have been performed showing one or more laser peaks centred around 1.55 μm. Far field characterization of the emission pattern has been realized showing different patterns depending on the geometrical shape of the structures. These kinds of devices may be used as efficient nanolaser sources for optical communications or optical sensors.     

Fabrication of 2D–3D photonic crystal heterostructures by glancing angle deposition

We fabricate 2D–3D photonic crystal heterostructures based on the silicon [001]-diamond:1 square spiral geometry using glancing angle deposition. We compare the normal incidence reflection properties of the fabricated 2D–3D heterostructures to simulated spectra generated using finite-difference time-domain calculations. Reflection peaks are observed, resulting from the presence of a photonic band gap, and defect modes are created by the 2D layer. Deterioration of the reflectance peaks with increased number of vertical spiral periods is observed. A series of square spiral structures are fabricated with a varying number of vertical periods to quantify the degradation of reflection peaks. At normal light incidence, a maximum reflection peak is observed from the film with three vertical periods. Beyond three spiral rotations, deterioration of the substrate-plane periodicity causes scattering losses.     

基于圆柱型硅光子晶体的1×2光下路分束器

本文设计了一个基于圆柱型硅光子晶体自准直环形腔的1×2光下路分束器.该光下路分束器由三个分光镜和一个反射镜构成,其中窄光束依赖自准直效应进行传输.利用多光束干涉理论分析了光下路分束器中不同出口的理论透射谱,并且利用时域有限差分法对光下路分束器透射谱进行数值模拟计算,其结果与理论预测基本一致.当下路波长为1 550 nm时,光下路分束器的自由光谱范围约为30 nm,几乎涵盖了整个光通信C波段.由于其小尺寸和全硅材料,本文设计的1×2光下路分束器有望应用于未来的集成光路中.     

Structure design and performance simulation on monolithic integrated chaotic-optical transmitter with photonic crystal waveguide in external cavity

A novel monolithic integrated chaotic-optical transmitter structure is proposed in this paper. It consists of a distributed feedback laser, a semiconductor optical amplifier, a passive waveguide, and a photonic crystal waveguide. The length of external cavity is shorten to 1.125 mm by the slow light effect in photonic crystal waveguide. The performance of the integrated chaotic-optical transmitter is simulated. A series of dynamic states transiting from steady state, period state, and finally to chaotic laser is obtained. The size and power consumption of the chaotic-optical transmitter are both reduced by introduction of photonic crystal waveguide.     

Optical characteristics of one-dimensional photonic crystals composed of high-aspect-ratio Si walls fabricated on V-grooved wafer

We demonstrate optical properties of one-dimensional photonic crystals (PC), which are fabricated using high-aspect-ratio etching on a V-grooved silicon wafer. The measured transmission spectrum has an obvious band gap; the suppression is over 30 dB. The quite small insertion loss of 1.9 dB is achieved by induced coupled plasma (ICP) cryogenic etching and direct coupling to the optical fiber aligned in the V-groove. We also successfully observed peaks originating from a localized cavity mode. Such a microcavity enables control of the light, which qualifies photonic crystal as a fundamental structure of optical functional devices. These results lead to achievement of integrated Si-based photonic circuits.     

Channel drop filter using photonic crystal ring resonators for CWDM communication systems

In this paper, a new optical channel drop filter (CDF) using photonic crystal ring resonators (PCRRs) is presented. Using the two-dimensional (2D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method in triangular lattice photonic crystal (PC) silicon rods, 100% forward dropping efficiency and a quality factor of more than 1000 can be achieved in third communication window while the resonant wavelength is 1550 nm. Through this novel (CDF), a multi-CDF operation with 100% drop efficiencies across all channels can be obtained. The proposed device could be used in future coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) communication systems.     

Physics and applications of photonic crystals

In this article, we investigate how the photonic band gaps and the variety of band dispersions of photonic crystals can be utilized for various applications and how they further give rise to completely novel optical phenomena. The enhancement of spontaneous emission through coupled cavity waveguides in a one-dimensional silicon nitride photonic microcrystal is investigated. We then present the highly directive radiation from sources embedded in two-dimensional photonic crystals. The manifestation of novel and intriguing optical properties of photonic crystals are exemplified experimentally by the negative refraction and the focusing of electromagnetic waves through a photonic crystal slab with subwavelength resolution.     

Surface wave photonic device based on porous silicon multilayers

Porous silicon is widely studied in the field of photonics due to its interesting optical properties. In this work, we present theoretical and first experimental studies of a new kind of porous silicon photonic device based on optical surface wave. A theoretical analysis of the device is presented using plane-wave approximation. The porous silicon multilayered structures are realized using electrochemical etching of p⁺-type silicon. Morphological and optical characterizations of the realized structures are reported.     

利用二维光子晶体提高波的耦合效率

通过多重散射方法数值模拟研究和实验测量表明利用二维光子晶体可以提高波的耦合效率.研究发现,高的波耦合效率通常发生在光子禁带的边沿和其它非禁带区的某些频率处.当光子晶体的晶格常数接近于所传输的波的波长时,会出现很高耦合效率的共振耦合现象.利用二维光子晶体的情况下的波耦合效率最高可以达到不利用二维光子晶体时的1.89倍.这种现象在光集成器件中尤其有用.     

Nonlinear wave interaction in photonic band gap materials

We present detailed analytical and numerical studies of nonlinear wave interaction processes in one-dimensional (1D) photonic band gap (PBG) materials with a Kerr nonlinearity. We demonstrate that some of these processes provide efficient mechanisms for dynamically controlling so-called gap-solitons. We derive analytical expressions that accurately determine the phase shifts experienced by nonlinear waves for a large class of non-resonant interaction processes. We also present comprehensive numerical studies of inelastic interactions, and show that rather distinct regimes of interaction exist. The predicted effects should be experimentally observable, and can be utilized for probing the existence and parameters of gap solitons. Our results are directly applicable to other nonlinear periodic structures such as Bose–Einstein condensates in optical lattices.     

Electro-optical resonant switching in two-dimensional side-coupled waveguide-cavity photonic crystal systems

Photonic crystals have many potential applications because of their ability to control lightwave propagation. We have investigated the electro-optical resonant switching in two-dimensional photonic crystal structures. The optical microcavity side coupled with a waveguide composed of a dielectric cylinder in air is studied by solving Maxwell?s equations using the plane wave expansion method and finite-difference time-domain method. The switching mechanism is a change in the conductance of the microcavity and hence modulating the resonant mode and eventually resonant switching is achieved. Such a mechanism of switching should open up a new application for designing components in photonic integrated circuits.     

基于圆柱型硅光子晶体的1×2光下路分束器(英文)

本文设计了一个基于圆柱型硅光子晶体自准直环形腔的1×2光下路分束器.该光下路分束器由三个分光镜和一个反射镜构成,其中窄光束依赖自准直效应进行传输.利用多光束干涉理论分析了光下路分束器中不同出口的理论透射谱,并且利用时域有限差分法对光下路分束器透射谱进行数值模拟计算,其结果与理论预测基本一致.当下路波长为1 550nm时,光下路分束器的自由光谱范围约为30nm,几乎涵盖了整个光通信C波段.由于其小尺寸和全硅材料,本文设计的1×2光下路分束器有望应用于未来的集成光路中.     

Cost-effective and dispersion-tolerant cascade modulation for millimeter-wave-over-fiber applications

In millimeter-wave-over-fiber (MWoF) feeder systems, the received millimeter-wave signals at the remote antennas (RAs) can suffer from signal fading by chromatic dispersion of optical fiber. This can be substantially mitigated by Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) based photonic up-conversion technique. In this technique, the data signals at intermediate frequency (IF) are frequency up-converted to millimeter-wave frequency by an MZM biased at its transmission null point. However, this scheme requires a costly, high-speed MZM, which will hinder the widespread of this technique for cost-sensitive MWoF applications. Hence, we propose and demonstrate a cost-effective way of reducing the cost of MWoF optical transmitters based on photonic up-conversion technique. We employ a dual wavelength source composed of a directly modulated laser and a polarimetric filter. This source is used to generate a millimeter-wave tone signal and to frequency up-convert the IF data signals to millimeter-wave frequency. The dual wavelength source is also shared with numerous RAs for further cost reduction. Our experimental demonstration performed with 30 Msymbol/s 16-quadrature amplitude modulation signals shows that we can transmit the 20 GHz millimeter-wave signals over 25 km standard single-mode fiber without any transmission penalty.     

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.