Polarization-Independent Surface Plasmon Liquid Crystal Photonic Crystal Multiplexer–Demultiplexer

Abstract

A novel design of polarization-independent surface plasmon multiplexer–demultiplexer (MUX/DEMUX) based on dual-core photonic crystal fiber with a central gold wire is proposed and analyzed. The cladding air holes are infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal of type E7 with rotation angle $\varphi$ , and the background material is a soft glass of type SF57 (lead silica). The simulation results are obtained using full-vectorial finite-difference method and coupled mode theory. At $\varphi = 90^{\circ}$ , the suggested MUX/DEMUX has a short device length of 953.254 $\mu\mbox{m}$ for x-polarized modes with broad bandwidths of 235 and 175 nm around wavelengths of 1.3 and 1.55 $\mu\mbox{m}$ , respectively, with low crosstalk better than −20 dB. For y-polarized modes, the reported MUX/DEMUX has short device length of 1322.86 $\mu\mbox{m}$ with broad bandwidths of 193 and 170 nm around 1.3 and 1.55 $\mu\mbox{m}$ , respectively. Moreover, the polarization independence is achieved with short device lengths of 1138.06 and 1180 $\mu\mbox{m}$ at $\varphi = 90^{\circ}$ and 0°, respectively.