All-optical switching in silicon photonic crystal waveguides by use of the plasma dispersion effect

Silicon photonic crystals offer new ways of controlling the propagation of light as well as new tools for the realization of high-density optical integration on monolithic substrates. However, silicon does not possess the strong nonlinearities that are commonly used in the dynamic control of optical devices. Such dynamic control is nevertheless essential if silicon is to provide the higher levels of functionality that are required for optical integration. We demonstrate that the combination of the refractive index change caused by the presence of photoexcited carriers, or so-called plasma dispersion, and photonic crystal properties such as photonic bandgaps, constitutes a powerful tool for active control of light in silicon integrated devices. We show close to 100% modulation depth near the photonic crystal band edge.     

光子晶体器件进展

光子晶体对光具有独特的局域、反射、传导、分束、耦合、调制、慢光等操纵能力,使其成为微/纳光电集成的重要材料之一。介绍了光子晶体的几种重要物理特性——带隙特性、慢光特性、自准直和负折射特性,叙述了光子晶体集成器件方面所取得的最新进展,对光子晶体器件的发展动向做了展望。     

Diffraction inhibition in two-dimensional photonic crystals

We show the existence of flat equal-frequency contour across the entire first Brillouin zone in two-dimensional photonic crystals. Under this condition, light diffraction can be inhibited. Moreover, the beam can be highly localized between two neighboring rows of the defect-free photonic crystal. Such a finding may have novel applications in light beam manipulations and on-chip integrated photonic devices.     

Optical properties of metamaterial-based devices modulated by a liquid crystal

Due to the fact that it is possible to manipulate light with photonic crystals (PCs), PCs hold a great potential for designing new optical devices. There has been an increase in research on tuning the optical properties of PCs to design devices. We presented a numerical study of optical properties of metamaterial-based devices by liquid crystal infiltration. The plane wave expansion method and finite-difference time-domain method for both TE and TM modes revealed optical properties in photonic crystal structures in an air background for a square lattice. E7 type has been used as a nematic liquid crystal and SrTiO₃ as a ferroelectric material. We showed the possibility of the metamaterials for a two-dimensional photonic crystal cavity on a ferroelectric base infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal.     

Chalcogenide glass photonic crystals

All-optical switching devices are based on a material possessing a nonlinear optical response, enabling light to control light, and are enjoying renewed interest. Photonic crystals are a promising platform for realizing compact all-optical switches operating at very low power and integrated on an optical integrated circuit. In this review, we show that by making photonic crystals from a highly nonlinear chalcogenide glass, we have the potential to integrate a variety of active devices into a photonic chip. We describe the fabrication and testing of two-dimensional Ge₃₃As₁₂ Se₅₅ chalcogenide glass photonic crystal membrane devices (waveguides and microcavities). We then demonstrate the ability to post-tune the devices using the material photosensitivity. In one proposal we hope to introduce a double-heterostructure microcavity using the photosensitivity alone.     

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     

Multiple slow light bands in photonic crystal coupled resonator optical waveguides constructed with a portion of photonic quasicrystals

Coupled resonator optical waveguides (CROWs) in complex two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals (PCs) constructed with a portion of 12-fold photonic quasicrystals (PQs) are proposed. We show that enhanced transmission and slow light can be simultaneously achieved in such waveguides as well as general CROWs. Moreover, due to higher degree of flexibility and tunability of PQs for defect mode properties compared to conventional periodic PCs, multiple slow light bands can be flexibly obtained in CROWs constructed with complex 2D PCs. Our results may lead to the development of a variety of novel ultracompact devices for photonic integrated circuits.     

Energy‐lose induced unidirectional light propagation in porous alumina photonic crystal

Unidirectional light propagation phenomena are observed in the photonic crystal heterostructures based on anodic alumina membrane when the incident light illuminated from forward and backward directions. Transmittance / reflectance spectra measurements and theoretical calculations show that the origin of this kind of unbalanced reflection is ascribed to the energy loss induced by Rayleigh scattering. Importantly, unidirectional light propagation can be modulated over the whole visible light region by adjusting the combination of different photonic bandgap as well as the view angle. The as‐prepared heterostructures may provide potential applications in direction‐dependent photonic devices.     

Slow light transmission in a photonic crystal power splitter with parallel outputs

In this paper, we investigate coupling of light to slow modes in a photonic crystal power splitter composed of a Y-junction and two 60° bends. First, a combination of two cascaded bends which is commonly used in integrated photonic crystal circuits is studied in slow light frequency regime. We propose a structure that its transmission spectrum covers the high group-index frequencies near the band edge. Also, by structural modifications, high transmission near to 95% is achieved in slow light bandwidth. Next, we study the complete structure of a photonic crystal power splitter with parallel outputs based on a Y-junction integrated with two 60° bends. Using modified bends and reducing sharpness of Y-junction, the efficiency of splitting increases in both high and low group-index frequency bands. The optimized structure has an average efficiency of 82% in slow mode regime. This structure can be used in photonic crystal based slow light devices, such as Mach-Zehnder interferometers.     

All-fiber LP11 mode convertors

We describe two all-fiber devices for converting light from the fundamental mode to the second-order set of modes in optical fibers. The first is made by controlled hole collapse in a photonic crystal fiber, and the second is a twisted fused coupler made from few-moded conventional fiber. As well as having applications within fiber optics, the devices can be used to generate azimuthally polarized free-space beams.     

Quantum photonic network on chip

We provide an overview of quantum photonic network on chip. We begin from the discussion of the pros and cons of several material platforms for engineering quantum photonic chips. Then we introduce and analyze the basic building blocks and functional units of quantum photonic integrated circuits. In the main part of this review, we focus on the generation and manipulation of quantum states of light on chip and are particularly interested in some applications of advanced integrated circuits with different functionalities for quantum information processing, including quantum communication, quantum computing, and quantum simulation. We emphasize that developing fully integrated quantum photonic chip which contains sources of quantum light, integrate circuits, modulators, quantum storage, and detectors are promising approaches for future quantum photonic technologies. Recent achievements in the large scale photonic chips for linear optical computing are also included. Finally, we illustrate the challenges toward high performance quantum information processing devices and conclude with promising perspectives in this field.     

Terahertz photonic states in semiconductor-graphene cylinder structures

We propose a semiconductor-graphene cylinder that can serve as a terahertz (THz) photonic crystal. In such a structure, graphene plays a role in achieving a strong mismatch of the dielectric constant at the semiconductor-graphene interface due to its two-dimensional nature and relatively low value of the dielectric constant. We find that when the radius of the outer semiconductor layer is about ρ(1)~100 μm, the frequencies of the photonic modes are within the THz bandwidth and they can be efficiently tuned via varying ρ(1). Furthermore, the dispersion relation of the photonic modes shows that a semiconductor-graphene cylinder is of excellent light transport properties, which can be utilized for the THz waveguide. This study is pertinent to the application of graphene as THz photonic devices.     

Integrating liquid crystal based optical devices in photonic crystal fibers

Liquid crystal photonic bandgap fibers form a versatile and robust platform for designing optical fiber devices, which are highly tunable and exhibit novel optical properties for manipulation of guided light. We present fiber devices for spectral filtering and polarization control/analysis.     

Controlling spontaneous emission with the local density of states of honeycomb photonic crystals

We calculated the local density of state for various positions in a photonic crystal of honeycomb lattice to study how the spontaneous emission rate of a radiating dipole is altered in the presence of the photonic crystal. The local density of states is found to be position-sensitive and its value can be enhanced or depressed relative to the density of states, depending on the location of the dipole. Our study shows that the density of states tends to underestimate the effect of a photonic crystal on the prohibition of light propagation, while on the contrary tends to overestimate the effect on the enhancement of light emission. The calculations also indicate that it is possible to tailor the spontaneous emission of an active medium by careful selecting its location in the photonic crystal. The results are helpful in determining the insertion location of the active medium and in evaluating the efficiency of active photonic crystal devices such as light-emitting diodes or lasers.     

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.     

Observation of trapped light induced by Dwarf Dirac-cone in out-of-plane condition for photonic crystals

Existence of out-of-plane conical dispersion for a triangular photonic crystal lattice is reported. It is observed that conical dispersion is maintained for a number of out-of-plane wave vectors(k_z). We study a case where Dirac like linear dispersion exists but the photonic density of states is not vanishing, called Dwarf Dirac cone(DDC) which does not support localized modes. We demonstrate the trapping of such modes by introducing defects in the crystal. Interestingly, we find by k-point sampling as well as by tuning trapped frequency that such a conical dispersion has an inherent light confining property and it is governed by neither of the known wave confining mechanisms like total internal reflection, band gap guidance. Our study reveals that such a conical dispersion in a non-vanishing photonic density of states induces unexpected intense trapping of light compared with those at other points in the continuum. Such studies provoke fabrication of new devices with exciting properties and new functionalities.     

Light transmission by a three-level emitter embedded in a waveguide-coupled two-mode photonic crystal nanocavity

We investigate light transmission obtained from a three-level V-type emitter embedded in a waveguide-coupled two-mode photonic crystal nanocavity operating in the weak-coupling regime. It is shown that the composite system exhibits double electromagnetically-induced-transparency-like characteristics and a π phase shift while not suffering from absorption in the experimentally available parameter range. The double-frequency transparency of the input light expands the frequency range of EIT and may improve the controllability of EIT. The proposed scheme also provides a way to achieve integrated photonic devices on a chip for applications requiring multiple EIT effect.     

Direct time–space conversion of ultra-fast pulses based on interferometric time-of-flight cross correlation using a fast optical addressable spatial light modulator

To realize an ultra-fast spatio-temporal photonic interface system, we propose direct time–space conversion of ultra-fast pulses based on the interferometric time-of-flight cross correlation technique using a fast optical addressable spatial light modulator (OA-SLM). We show preliminary experiments using transverse-field photorefractive MQW devices as an OA-SLM compatible with ultra-fast pulses.     

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。