Quadrupole resonator mode versus dipole one in photonic crystal ferrite circulators

Abstract

We propose a photonic crystal circulator based on quadrupole resonance of a magnetized ferrite cylinder. This device consists of a T-junction composed by three waveguides in a two-dimensional photonic crystal with square lattice. The ferrite cylinder is placed in the center of the T-junction. The scattering matrix, analytical model and the numerically calculated frequency characteristics of the circulator for the central frequency 94.5 GHz are presented. This device is compared with the previously suggested T-type circulator based on the dipole resonance mode. In particular, we show that the use of the quadrupole resonance permits to reduce the necessary DC magnetic field in comparison with dipole mode case by six times and this is important at THz frequencies where the necessary field is excessively high. Besides, quadrupole resonance requires the higher diameter of the ferrite resonator. The ferrite cylinders are produced by a special technology, and higher dimensions lead to a better reproducibility of such elements. However, these advantages are achieved at the expense of higher insertion losses and lower bandwidth of the circulator.