Novel optical modulator using silicon photonic crystals

We propose a novel compact and integrated optical modulator, which consists of p–i–n silicon photonic crystals with triangular lattice and a line defect waveguide. The device operation is based on a dynamic shift of the photonic band gap (PBG), which induced change in the silicon refractive index by the free carrier injection. We have numerically analyzed and investigated its light modulation performance by using plane wave expansion (PWE) method and finite-difference time-domain method. With small size, rapid response time and high extinct ratio, the designed optical modulator can be used in photonic integrated circuits.     

A 2D rods-in-air square-lattice photonic crystal optical switch

A 2D photonic crystal optical switch is proposed based on a rods-in-air square-lattice photonic crystal by removing two cross-lines of rods from a 2D square-lattice photonic crystal to form four optical channels. The simulation results show that, when inserting a single rod along the diagonal line of the intersection area of two removed cross-lines of rods, the position of the single inserted rod determines how much incident energy goes into different channels. In the case of transverse magnetic (TM) Gaussian point source, time domain simulation shows that up to 87.3% of the incident energy can be switched into a channel, which is vertical to the source channel. Because there are two diagonal lines in the intersection area of two removed cross-lines of rods, the optical switch feature is achieved by shifting the inserted rod between two diagonal lines. It is also found that the magnitude of the reflected wave in the source channel varies greatly with spatial position of the single inserted rod. The larger the magnitude of the reflected wave in the source channel, the less the energy that goes into the switched channel. The time delay between the incident wave and the reflected wave in the source channel is also related to the position of the single inserted rod. In addition, the large time delay between the incident wave and the reflected wave in the source channel shows that the reflected wave encounters many reflections with the walls of the source channel, instead of waves reflected back from the single inserted rod.     

Design of integrated optical circulator based on photonic crystals

Photonic crystals containing defects produce enhanced Faraday rotation. They have opened up the possibility of fabricating very compact magneto-optics structures. In this work, we have designed a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide for use in optical packaging and integrated optical circuits. For design purposes, a temporal coupled mode theory was utilized at the first step. It examined the coupling between cavity and optical ports. After acquiring a general solution, it would be applied to specific problem in hand. Then, optical characteristics of photonic crystal were investigated to design the practical parts such as cavity and waveguides which eventually a triangular crystal lattice of air holes in Bi:YIG (BIG) was considered to be the best candidate. Finally, the results of analytical investigations were evaluated using OptiFDTD software and then were confirmed.     

Fabrication of large-area 3D photonic crystals using a holographic optical element

A holographic technique for fabricating 3D photonic crystal is presented. The key element in the fabrication system is a holographic optical element (HOE) consisting of three gratings. Used in combination with a mask, the HOE can generate four beams under single illuminating beam, and 3D lattice structures can be formed by the interference of the four beams. Holographic approach is used to make HOE, so large area lattice structures can be fabricated. Numerical simulations indicate that beam intensity ratio of central beam to outer beam is one of the factors that affects the structures fabricated in photoresist, and high diffraction efficiency of the gratings in HOE is favorable when using cw laser with relatively low power as light source. Experimental results show clear 3D lattice structures fabricated using the HOE, verifying the effectiveness of the technique.     

Design of high-Q cavities in 2D photonic crystals air holes filled with polymer

We design novel photonic crystal heterostructure, substituting the air in the holes with materials of refractive index higher than n = 1. This can be achieved by infiltrating the photonic crystal (PC) with polymer. We theoretically investigate the L₂ cavity with two missing holes in the center, where the six holes surrounding the cavity are locally filled with polymer. We show that cavity modes can be differently tuned depending on the size and the position of the first hole adjacent to the cavity. A photonic microcavity with a high Q factor of 5.5 × 10⁶ and a modal volume V of 0.1919 is demonstrated. We demonstrate that the calculated Q factor for the designed cavity increases by a factor of 22 relative to that for a cavity without displaced and reduced air holes, while the modal volume remains almost constant.     

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.     

Control of photonic band gaps in one-dimensional photonic crystals

The photonic band gaps in one-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs) are theoretically investigated. A new method to broaden the photonic band gaps is introduced. Based on the similar method, a kind of photonic crystals is constructed to generate photonic band gaps with proportioned central frequencies. This technology can be used for designing nonlinear PCs for harmonic generation.     

3D photonic crystals based on macroporous silicon: Towards a large complete photonic bandgap

Recently, a new three-dimensional photonic crystal consisting of two interpenetrating hexagonal pore sets was introduced. Here, we investigate the influence of possible experimental errors including shift, tilt and rotation of one pore set on the size of the bandgap theoretically and determine fabrication tolerances. A structure is fabricated in silicon using photo-electrochemical etching and subsequent focused ion beam milling. The change of the cross-section of the milled pores with pore depth is investigated and reflection measurements along different directions are performed indicating the low frequency edge of the photonic bandgap.     

Fabrication and demonstration of square lattice two-dimensional rod-type photonic bandgap crystal optical intersections

This paper reports fabrication and demonstration of optical intersections in two-dimensional (2D) rod-type photonic crystal (PhC) structures. High resolution and aspect ratio 2D square lattice PhC waveguide intersections were designed and fabricated for application at the optical communication wavelengths centered at 1550 nm. In the silicon processing front, challenges resolved to overcome issues of drastically reduced process windows caused by the dense PhC rods arrays with critical dimensions (CDs) reduced to only a few hundred nanometers were addressed not only in terms of critical process flow design but also in the development of each processing module. In the lithographic process of deep ultraviolet laser system working at 248 nm, PhC rods of sub-lithographic wavelength CDs (115 nm in radii) were realized in high resolution, even near periphery regions where proximity errors were prone. In the deep etching module, stringent requirements on etch angle control and low sidewall scallops (undulations arising from time multiplexed etch and passivation actions) were satisfied, to prevent catastrophic etch failures, and enable optical quality facets. The successfully fabricated PhCs were also monolithically integrated with large scale optical testing fiber grooves that enabled macro optical fiber assisted coupling to the micro scale PhC devices. In the optical experiments, the transmission and crosstalk properties for the PhC intersection devices with different rod radii at the center of the PhC optical waveguides crossings were measured with repeatability. The properties of the PhC intersections were therefore optimized and verified to correspond well with first principle finite difference time domain simulations.     

Extremely low optical transmittance in the stopbands of photonic crystals

We demonstrate extremely low transmittance characteristics of photonic crystals (PhCs) with a finite thickness in specific photonic bandgaps (PBGs) through numerical simulation, and clarify its origin. Some of the PhCs support decaying Bloch eigenmodes, whose propagation constant (real part of the Bloch wavenumber) as well as their decay constant (imaginary part) changes with frequency inside the bandgap. Such a class of modes can interfere destructively at the exit end of the crystal depending on their round-trip phase change, which creates comb-like valleys in their transmission spectra.     

Large range of omni-directional reflection in 1D photonic crystal heterostructures

A simple design of one-dimensional omni-directional reflector based on photonic crystal heterostructures structure has been proposed. The proposed structure consists of a periodic array of alternate layers of SiO₂ and Te as the materials of low and high refractive indices, respectively. The structure considered here has three stacks of periodic structures having five layers each. The lattice period of successive stack is increased by a certain multiple (say gradual constant, δ) of the lattice period of the just preceding stack. For numerical computation, the method of transfer matrix method (TMM) has been employed. It is found that such a structure has wider reflection bands in comparison to a conventional dielectric PC structure and the width of the omni-directional reflection (ODR) bands can be enlarged by increasing the value of the gradual constant δ.     

Photonic band gap engineering in 2D photonic crystals

The polarization-dependent photonic band gaps (TM and TE polarizations) in two-dimensional photonic crystals with square lattices composed of air holes in dielectric and vice versa i.e., dielectric rods in air, using the plane-wave expansion method are investigated. We then study, how the photonic band gap size is affected by the changing ellipticity of the constituent air holes/dielectric rods. It is observed that the size of the photonic band gap changes with changing ellipticity of the constituent air holes/dielectric rods. Further, it is reported, how the photonic band gap size is affected by the change in the orientation of the constituent elliptical air holes/dielectric rods in 2D photonic crystals.     

Emissivity measurements of 3D photonic crystals at high temperatures

An accurate methodology is presented to measure photonic crystal emissivity using a direct method. This method addresses the issue of how to separate the emissions from the photonic crystal and the substrate. The method requires measuring two quantities: the total emissivity of the photonic crystal–substrate system, and the emissivity of the substrate alone. Our measurements have an uncertainty of 4% and represent the most accurate measure of a photonic crystal's emissivity. The measured results are compared to, and agree very well with, the independent emitter model.     

3D harnessing of light with 2.5D photonic crystals

It is emphasized that two‐dimensional photonic crystals (2D PC) have not only a great potential for the development of 2D nanophotonics in the inplane waveguided configuration, but that they may also open the way to other brilliant developments, with an extension to out‐of‐plane operation, along a 2.5D nanophotonics approach. In this 2.5D approach, a 1D–2D high index contrast lateral structuration is combined with a 1D high index contrast vertical structuration, using multilayer membrane stacks including 1D–2D photonic crystal membranes, thus resulting in so‐called 2.5D PC. As a specific illustration of recent achievements along this approach, new families of VCSEL structures are presented.     

Enlargement of absolute photonic band gap in modified 2D anisotropic annular photonic crystals

We analyze the absolute photonic band gap in two dimensional (2D) square, triangular and honeycomb lattices composed of air holes or rings with different geometrical shapes and orientations in anisotropic tellurium background. Using the numerical plane wave expansion method, we engineer the absolute photonic band gap in modified lattices, achieved by addition of circular, elliptical, rectangular, square and hexagonal air hole or ring into the center of each lattice unit cell. We discuss the maximization of absolute photonic band gap width as a function of main and additional air hole or ring parameters with different shapes and orientation.     

Properties of defect modes in one-dimensional photonic crystals containing two nonlinear defects

Transmission properties of one-dimensional photonic crystal with two nonlinear defects were investigated based on the nonlinear transfer matrix method. From the inspection of the optical bistabilities around different defect modes, it was found that the threshold of bistability for the bonding mode is always lower than that for the anti-bonding mode. When intensity of the incident wave increases bistability could happen at any wavelength larger than the resonance wavelength of the linear anti-bonding mode in the gap. The threshold of bistability increases initially with the wavelength, then decreases sharply in reaching the resonance wavelength of the linear bonding mode. The coupling behavior of the two defects was also discussed, and it was found that the threshold of bistability increases with the distance between the two defects. A flat spectrum similar to that formed in the photonic crystal molecules was obtained under certain incident intensity.     

Fabrication of high-quality colloidal photonic crystals with sharp band edges for ultrafast all-optical switching

Application of the pressure controlled isothermal heating vertical deposition method to the fabrication of colloidal photonic crystals is systematically investigated in this paper. The fabricated samples are characterized by scanning electron microscope and transmission spectrum. High-quality samples with large transmissions in the pass bands and the sharp band edges are obtained and the optimum growth condition is determined. For the best sample, the transmission in the pass bands approaches 0.9 while that in the band gap reaches 0.1. More importantly, the maximum differential transmission as high as 0.1/nm is achieved. In addition, it is found that the number of stacking layers does not increase linearly with concentration of PS spheres in a solution, and a gradual saturation occurs when the concentration of PS spheres exceeds 1.5 wt.%. The uniformity of the fabricated samples is examined by transmission measurements on areas with different sizes. Finally, the tolerance of the fabricated samples to baking was studied.     

Application of self-collimated beams to realization of all optical photonic crystal encoder

In this paper a 4×2 optical encoder is proposed by employing the self-collimation effect in 2D photonic crystals. The total structure of the proposed device is a combination of so called “beam splitters” and “mirrors”. The simulation result indicates that, this design can operate as 4×2 optical encoder, the footprint of structure is about 69 µm×55 µm and response time is about 1.4 ps.     

Ultrafast optical switching in Kerr nonlinear photonic crystals

Nonlinear photonic crystals made from polystyrene materials that have Kerr nonlinearity can exhibit ultrafast optical switching when the samples are pumped by ultrashort optical pulses with high intensity due to the change of the refractive index of polystyrene and subsequent shift of the band gap edge or defect state resonant frequency. Polystyrene has a large Kerr nonlinear susceptibility and almost instantaneous response to pump light, making it suitable for the realization of ultrafast optical switching with a response time as short as a few femtoseconds. In this paper, we review our experimental progress on the continual improvement of all-optical switching speed in two-dimensional and three-dimensional polystyrene nonlinear photonic crystals in the past years. Several relevant issues are discussed and analyzed, including different mechanisms for all-optical switching, preparation of nonlinear photonic crystal samples by means of microfabrication and self-assembly techniques, characterization of optical switching performance by means of femtosecond pump-probe technique, and different ways to lower the pump power of optical switching to facilitate practical applications in optical information processing. Finally, a brief summary and a perspective of future work are provided.