Abstract
We demonstrate theoretically that photons and acoustic phonons can be simultaneously guided and slowed down in specially designed nanostructures. Phoxonic crystal waveguides presenting simultaneous phononic and photonic band gaps were designed in perforated silicon membranes that can be conveniently obtained using silicon-on-insulator technology. Geometrical parameters for simultaneous photonic and phononic band gaps were first chosen for optical wavelengths around 1550 nm, based on the finite element analysis of a perfect phoxonic crystal of circular holes. A plain core waveguide was then defined, and simultaneous slow light and elastic guided modes were identified for some waveguide width. Joint guidance of light and elastic waves is predicted with group velocities as low as c/25 and 180 m/s, respectively.
Highlights
The propagation of photons and acoustic phonons can be controlled separately by nanostructuration of the supporting materials
We demonstrate theoretically that photons and acoustic phonons can be simultaneously guided and slowed down in specially designed nanostructures
Phoxonic crystal waveguides presenting simultaneous phononic and photonic band gaps were designed in perforated silicon membranes that can be conveniently obtained using silicon-on-insulator technology
Summary
The propagation of photons and acoustic phonons can be controlled separately by nanostructuration of the supporting materials. Several combinations of materials and nanostructures have been suggested recently in order to obtain simultaneous photonic and phononic band gaps [3,4,5,6,7,8,9] We term such artificial materials phoxonic crystals, but they are termed opto-mechanical crystals by other authors [8]. 3D phoxonic crystals composed of metal spheres in a dielectric background have been proposed [7], but the dominant material platform is arguably the silicon slab perforated with periodic arrays of sub-micrometer holes [8,9,10] or supporting a periodic array of pillars [11] Such nanostructures can be precisely manufactured using silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technologies. Spatial confinement created by the phoxonic band gap is found to be favorable for obtaining low group velocities for both sound and light waves
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