Design of photonic crystal nonlinear laser power limiter based on topological edge states and optical Kerr effect.

Abstract

We propose a novel topological photonic crystal nonlinear laser power limiter based on topological edge states and optical Kerr effect. In the proposed laser power limiter, a one-dimensional photonic crystal in topological edge state allows the relatively weak signal light with a certain wavelength to pass through with high transmission, but blocks most of the intense hostile or accidental laser with the same wavelength due to the change of topological edge state generated from optical Kerr effect. Taking a 1064 nm wavelength as an example, we have designed such a nonlinear laser power limiter corresponding to the wavelength. When the optical power density is low (less than 0.12 MW/cm2), the light transmission can reach 82.54%, and the transmission can be reduced to 1.04% when the optical power density is increased to 11.66 MW/cm2. Therefore, this method provides a new promising approach to realize laser protection at the desired wavelength.