Broadband angular measurement of rectangular photonic crystal superprisms

Abstract

We demonstrate the fabrication, characterization and simulation of visible wavelength superprism devices in photonic crystal waveguides. We studied the super refraction dependence on lattice symmetry orientation and for propagation angles close to the main symmetry orientation. A variety of rectangular lattices devices with various pitches and hole diameters as well as number of rows have been fabricated. We used our previously developed automated broadband spectral and angular measurement to map the chromatic refractivity. We found the refraction angles and sign to be dependent on the lattice orientation and bandgap. As the lattice was rotated away from the main symmetry direction the magnitude of the angular dispersion increased indicating enhanced super-refractive properties away from symmetry direction. We found the chromatic refraction to be up to 1°/nm close to the band edge of the principal bandgaps, 10x more than equivalent gratings, and 100x more than equivalent prisms [[xiv]]. Dispersion curve obtained from plane wave simulation allowed us to model the Bloch mode propagation directions in the periodic structure. We found these simple models to be in excellent agreement with the experimental results, allowing us to design a range of effective superprism devices.