Design and simulation of a switch based on nonlinear directional coupler

In this paper, we have analyzed a nonlinear photonic crystal directional coupler by the finite difference time domain method. We have tried to increase the coupling efficiency and also reduce the coupling length in linear and nonlinear states in this device. In this coupler, refractive index of the rods of the central row is tuned by input signal power due to nonlinear Kerr effect; therefore, input signal beam can be controlled so as to be exchanged between two output ports. Physical length is chosen to be 24a so as to have the highest output power ratio and also the smallest amount of power required for nonlinear performance.     

双光子吸收对光子晶体定向耦合全光开关的影响

 利用时域有限差分方法,在非线性条件下,考虑双光子吸收效应的同时,建立了分析2维光子晶体定向耦合波导光开关的模型。数值计算结果表明,对于长度较短的波导耦合器件,在强控制光和非线性条件下,双光子吸收效应会对波导的耦合作用产生一定的影响,从而改变入射光的透射特性,使光开关控制的动态过程发生变化。故而在设计全光开关器件时,对强控制光条件下的非线性双光子吸收效应有必要作为影响因素考虑进去。     

双光子吸收对光子晶体定向耦合全光开关的影响

利用时域有限差分方法,在非线性条件下,考虑双光子吸收效应的同时,建立了分析2维光子晶体定向耦合波导光开关的模型。数值计算结果表明,对于长度较短的波导耦合器件,在强控制光和非线性条件下,双光子吸收效应会对波导的耦合作用产生一定的影响,从而改变入射光的透射特性,使光开关控制的动态过程发生变化。故而在设计全光开关器件时,对强控制光条件下的非线性双光子吸收效应有必要作为影响因素考虑进去。     

Design of a compact polarization beam splitter based on a deformed photonic crystal directional coupler

In this paper a compact polarization beam splitter based on a deformed photonic crystal directional coupler is designed and simulated. The transverse-electric （TE） guided mode and transverse-magnetic （TM） guided mode are split due to different guiding mechanisms. The effect of the shape deformation of the air holes on the coupler is studied. It discovered that the coupling strength of the coupled waveguldes is strongly enhanced by introducing elliptical airholes, which reduce the device length to less than 18.Sttm. A finite-difference tlme-domain simulation is performed to evaluate the performance of the device, and the extinction ratios for both TE and TM polarized light are higher than 20 dB.     

Analysis of a gained nonlinear directional coupler pulse switch

We have investigated the switching performance of a gained (nonlinear directional coupler) NLDC switch in the presence of both 2nd and 4th order gain nonlinearities. In this system, we have achieved a nearly complete pulse switching at half beat length of the coupler which implies about 40% reduction in the switching length as compared to the switching length reported in Trillo et al. (1988). We have shown that at the half beat length the output energy of each branch is equal to that of the input energy and hence the gained NLDC switches have ability to be cascaded. Our initial investigations reveal that this gained NLDC switch has remarkable performance and potential to be used in ultra-fast optical communication systems.     

Design of an insensitive-polarization all-optical switch based on multimode interference structures

This paper presents a new design for an insensitive-polarization all-optical switch using 2 × 2 multimode interference (MMI) couplers. The switching structure can operate at central operating wavelength 1550 nm for both polarizations. A nonlinear directional coupler is used to realize the phase shifter and therefore switching mechanism is obtained. The transfer matrix method and beam propagation method are used to design and optimize the whole device structure.     

带补偿电极的高消光比定向耦合器开关

研究了对称结构定向耦合器开关的工作原理 ,用正交模理论结合制造工艺条件分析了影响对称结构定向耦合器开关消光比的因素。提出了提高对称结构定向耦合器开关消光比的方法。理论分析及模拟计算结果表明 :在对称结构定向耦合器开关的分支区加上一对补偿电极后可以获得较高的消光比。     

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.     

A comparative numerical study of soliton switching in a nonlinear directional coupler with saturating nonlinearity

A detailed numerical study of soliton switching in a nonlinear directional coupler with saturating nonlinearity is carried out. All commonly used models have been studied. Relevant physical characteristics for switching have been determined, compared and discussed.     

Vector soliton switching in a fiber nonlinear directional coupler

This paper reports a detailed numerical study of soliton switching in a high as well as low birefringent nonlinear coupler. It is shown that by controlling the polarization angle one can have nearly 100% transmission with excellent switching characteristics. It is shown that soliton remains stable during its propagation inside the coupler. However it is observed that high birefringent coupler exhibits relatively better soliton stability. We show that the coupler could be used as a soliton switch even at an input peak power less than the critical power, the power at which 50-50 power sharing takes place between the two cores, just by a judicious choice of the polarization angle.     

Chirp controllable all-optical router in a nonlinear directional coupler

We analyzed the evolution of chirped optical pulses in a nonlinear directional coupler by coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. It is shown that an optical pulses launched into one channel can couple out from either of the two channels of the nonlinear directional coupler, with the routing determined by the chirp of the pulse. This is different from the previous routing mechanism of the nonlinear directional coupler where routing is determined by the peak power of the pulse. Based on the chirp-dependent feature, all-optical router and switch could be implemented by the pulse chirp modulation.     

A photonic wire-based directional coupler based on SOI

A photonic wire-based directional coupler based on SOI was fabricated by e-beam lithography (EBL) and the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching method. The size of the sub-micron waveguide is 0.34 μm × 0.34 μm, and the length in the coupling region and the separation between the two parallel waveguides are 410 and 0.8 μm, respectively. The measurement results are in good agreement with the results simulated by 3D finite-difference time-domain method. The transmission power from two output ports changed reciprocally with about 23 nm wavelength spacing between the coupled and direct ports. The extinction ratio of the device was between 5 and 10 dB, and the insertion loss of the device in the wavelength range 1520-1610 nm was between 22 and 24 dB, which included an about 18.4 ± 0.4 dB coupling loss between the taper fibers and the polished sides of the device.     

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.     

一种实现光子晶体波导定向耦合型多路光均分的新方法

将多光子晶体单模波导平行、邻近放置构成定向耦合器. 依据自映像原理,数值分析了输入光场对称入射时,该系统中光的传播行为. 基于此结构,以三、四通道为例,设计了超微多路光分束器,并仅通过对称地改变耦合区中两个介质柱的有效折射率,使光场在横向发生重新分布,实现了输出能量的均分或自由分配. 和已报道结果相比,此调制方法更为简单易行而且效率更高,并可以推广到具有更多输出通道的光分束器中,在未来的集成光回路中具有广泛的应用价值. 关键词： 光子晶体波导 定向耦合器 分束器 能量均分     

Finite element analysis of optically controlled non-linear directional coupler switches

Optically controlled two-way optical switches are useful for high-speed photonic switches and rapidly reconfigurable optical interconnection networks. A directional coupler forms such a switch because the field can be switched from one waveguide to the other by altering the optical length of the waveguide. Nonlinear materials are incorporated in the waveguide so that the optical path length may be altered by using an optical control beam to vary the intensity of light. A finite element method is described that enables the modelling of the non-linear dual waveguide structure for arbitrary waveguide shapes. Spurious modes are avoided in the transverse magnetic field method and non-linearity is handled by iteration and assuming an equivalent non-linear relative permittivity.     

太赫兹双芯光子带隙光纤定向耦合器

提出了一种低损耗、宽频段太赫兹双芯光子带隙光纤定向耦合器,光纤的包层由亚波长尺度呈三角晶格排列的空气孔组成, 两个纤芯分别由去掉7个空气孔构成.利用全矢量有限元法对光纤的色散、耦合特性以及损耗特性进行了理论分析. 研究表明,这种耦合器的损耗系数小于0.021 cm^-1,更重要的是可以实现0.14 THz范围内的宽频定向耦合. 这种定向耦合器在太赫兹通信系统中滤波、波分复用、偏振分离和开关等技术中有潜在的应用价值.     

Novel composite beam splitter with directional coupler and Y-junction using photonic crystal

We propose and analyze a novel multiway high efficiency composite beam splitter based on propagation properties of the light waves in directional coupler and Y-junction. The splitting properties of the beam splitter have been numerically simulated and analyzed using the PWE and FDTD methods. Then in order to obtain equal distribution of power, we place and adjust some additional rods in the output waveguides to optimize the devices. It was shown that a large separating angle, a high beam rate, high flexibility, has been extended to have more light output channels in the beam splitter.     

非线性光子晶体中光敏超棱镜现象的研究

基于非线性时域有限差分法,模拟了克尔非线性光子晶体中的光敏超棱镜现象.结果发现,当光强变化230 W/μm时,两束光在空间上能被分开10°,选取较大的基本功率将有助于提高其光强分辨率. 而且,当自抽运光较强时,光子晶体中光波的波矢方向将会发生转动. 此外,光束在非线性光子晶体中长距离传播时,透过率的变化将经历几个不同的阶段,分别对应于不同原因所造成的光强损耗. 关键词： 光子晶体 超棱镜 克尔非线性效应     

Numerical characterization of nanopillar photonic crystal waveguides and directional couplers

We numerically characterize a novel type of a photonic crystal waveguide, which consists of several rows of periodically arranged dielectric cylinders. In such a nanopillar photonic crystal waveguide, light confinement is due to the total internal reflection. A nanopillar waveguide is a multimode waveguide, where the number of modes is equal to the number of rows building the waveguide. The strong coupling between individual waveguides leads to the proposal of an ultrashort directional coupler based on nanopillar waveguides. We present a systematic analysis of the dispersion and transmission efficiency of nanopillar photonic crystal waveguides and directional couplers. Plane wave expansion and finite difference time domain methods were used to characterize numerically nanopillar photonic crystal structures both in two- and three-dimensional spaces.     

Analysis and optimization of optical bistability in one-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal with (HL)(D)(LH) and (LH)(D)(HL) structures

Although one-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal (1D-NPC) has been widely studied, there is no comprehensive analysis on decreasing the bistability threshold power.In this paper, conditions required to create bistability have been specified for two types of structures of alternative high and low refractive index layers and defect layers with Kerr nonlinearity effect, in the order of (HL)^p(D)^q(LH)^p and (LH)^p(D)^q(HL)^p, where L and H denote low and high refractive index layers, respectively, D stands for the defect layers, p is the number of LH or HL layers and q is the number of defect layers.One of the essentials for the bistability is appropriate shifts of frequency of the defect mode, so the effect of the order of layer's arrangement in (1D-NPC) structures have been studied. Different structures have been introduced and the best structure for the lowest bistability threshold power has been proposed. Nonlinear finite-difference time-domain (NFDTD) in C++ has been employed for simulation.