Photonic Crystals for Novel Applications in Integrated-Optic Communication Systems and Devices

Photonic Crystal (PhC) based devices are being increasingly used in multifunctional, compact devices in integrated optical communication systems. They provide excellent controllability of light, yet maintaining the small size required for miniaturization. In this paper, the band gap properties of PhCs and their typical applications in optical waveguiding are considered. Novel PhC based applications such as nonlinear switching and tapers are considered and simulation results are shown using the accurate time-domain numerical method based on Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) scheme. The suitability of these devices for novel applications is discussed and evaluated.

Authors:

• Vijay Janyani
• Neetu Joshi
• Jigyasa Pagaria
• Parul Pathak

Keywords:

• Band gap engineering
• Nonlinear switching
• Photonic crystals
• PhC tapers
• waveguides.

References:

[1] Susumu Noda, Toshihiko Baba, "Roadmap on Photonic Crystals", Kluwer
Academic Publishers, 2003
[2] J. D. Joannopoulos, R. D. Meade, and J. N. Winn, Photonic Crystals:
Molding the Flow of Light (Princeton U. Press, 1995).
[3] J. D. Joannopoulos, P. R. Villeneuve, and S. Fan, "Photonic crystal: put a
new twist on light", Nature 386, 143, 1997.
[4] S. G. Johnson, P. R. Villeneuve, S. H. Fan, and J. D. Joannopoulos,
"Linear waveguide in photonic crystal slab", Phys. Rev. B 62, 8212-
8222(2000).
[5] G. Muller, B. Stegmuller, H. Westermeier, G. Wenger, "Tapered
InP/InGaAsP waveguide structure for efficient fibre-chip coupling",
Electronics letters, vol. 27, no. 20, pp.1836-1838, September 1991.
[6] T. Baba, D. Mori, Kyoji Inoshita, Yusuke Kuroki, "Light localizations in
photonic crystal waveguides", IEEE Journal of selected topics in
quantum electronics, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 484-491, May/June 2004.
[7] I. Fushman, E. Waks, D. Englund, N. Stoltz, P. Petroff, and J. Vuckovic,
"Ultrafast Nonlinear Optical Tuning of Photonic Crystal Cavities,"
Applied Physics Letters, vol. 90, pp. 0911181-0911183, 2007.
[8] Delphine Marris-Morini, Eric Cassan, Damien Bernier, Guillaume
Maire,Laurent Vivien, "Ultracompact tapers for light coupling into twodimensional
slab photonic crystal waveguides in the slow light regime ",
Optical Engineering,Vol. 47(1), 014602, January 2008.
[9] M. Mashayekhi, W. J. Wang, S. Iraj Najafi, "Semiconductor device to
optical fiber coupling using low loss glass taper waveguide", Optical
Engineering, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, 36
(12), pp. 3476-3477, December 1997.
[10] Pierre Pottier, Iraklis Ntakis, and Richard M. De La Rue, "Photonic crystal
continuous taper for efficient coupling into 2D photonic crystal channel
waveguides", Opt. Commun., vol. 223, pp. 339-347, 2003.
[11] K. Brakora, C. Barth, K. Sarabandi, "A plane-wave expansion method for
analyzing propagation in 3D periodic ceramic structures", Proceedings of
the Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, 2005
IEEE, Vol. 2B, pp 192- 195.
[12] R. M. Joseph and A. Taflove, "FDTD Maxwell's Equations Models for
Nonlinear Electrodynamics and Optics," IEEE Transactions on Antennas
and Propagation, vol. 45, pp. 364-374, 1997.
[13] V. Janyani, T. M. Benson, A. Vukovic, " Accurate Time Domain Method
for Simulation of Microstructured Electromagnetic and Photonic
Structures", International Journal of Electronics, Circuits and Systems,
Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 154-157, 2008.
[14] V. Janyani, A. Vukovic, T. Benson, J. Paul, P. Sewell, "Dynamics of pulse
propagation in phase-shifted fibre Bragg gratings: a numerical
investigation", Journal of Optical and Quantum Electronics (Springer),
No. 39, pp. 709-716, 2007.
[15] V. Janyani, J. D. Paul, A. Vukovic, T. M. Benson, and P. Sewell, "TLM
Modelling of Non-Linear Optical Effects in Fibre Bragg Gratings," IEE
Proceedings Optoelectronics, vol. 151, pp. 185-192, 2004.