Giant optical vortex in photonic crystal waveguide with nonlinear optical cavity

Abstract

We consider light transmission in a directional photonic crystal waveguide that holds a nonlinear defect with two resonant dipole modes within the light propagation band. For the defect positioned on the center line of the waveguide, there are two ways to break the mirror symmetry with respect to either light intensity or light phase. The latter results in a giant vortex of the Poynting vector of the power current within the defect exceeding the input current by, at least, two orders of magnitude. We also consider the breaking of symmetry relative to the mirror reflection with respect to the cross-sectional axis of the waveguide when light is injected equally into both ends of the waveguide. This leads to different light outputs determined by the vorticity of the optical vortex.