Photonic Crystal Configuration Research Articles

Design of a pressure sensor based on the 1D ternary Octonacci photonic crystal configurations

Design of a pressure sensor based on the 1D ternary Octonacci photonic crystal configurations

Numerical analysis of microstructured optical fibers based on flint glass for ultra-high nonlinearity, low loss, and broadband dispersion compensation across telecom bands

This research investigates the potential of flint glass as a foundational material for photonic crystal configurations designed to achieve high nonlinear coefficients across various communication wavelengths. We explore dispersion management within telecom bands using flint glass-based micro-structured optical fibers, employing numerical analysis via the finite element method to assess optical properties. In this study, three different basic MOF structures (hexagonal, square, and octagonal) were created using flint glass background material rather of the commonly utilized fused silica material, and the numerically was assessed in contrast to prior studies and designs. Among the configurations studied, the octagonal arrangement (FGO-MOF) excels in dispersion compensation, achieving −136.6 ps/(nm.km) at 1.55 µm. Conversely, the hexagonal air hole ring cladding design (FGH-MOF) displays higher nonlinearity (770.5 W−1.km−1), a smaller effective area (1.115 µm2), and a high numerical aperture (0.6378). In contrast, the square air hole ring cladding optical fiber (FGS-MOF) exhibits low confinement loss (6.309 × 10−7 dB/cm) at 1.55 µm but with comparatively less favorable optical properties. Our study demonstrates that the hexagonal microstructured optical fiber with flint glass (FGH-MOF) offers superior performance in dispersion compensation, nonlinearity, and low loss within telecom bands. This finding suggests promising applications in high-bit-rate communication systems, biomedical sensing, and supercontinuum generation, presenting exciting avenues for further research and practical implementation.

Color-selective optical edge detection enabled by thermally stimulated cholesteric liquid crystals

Optical edge detection can significantly compress the data volume and is highly pursued in imaging processing. The commonly used methods extract the optical edge information but lose the capability to distinguish colors, which is another key information for imaging. Here, a design for color-selective optical edge detection is proposed and demonstrated with a cholesteric liquid crystal q-plate. The corresponding optical edge detection exhibits a narrow reflection band characteristic due to the one-dimensional photonic crystal configuration of the cholesteric liquid crystal. The monochromatic band is thermally and reversibly tuned ∼300 nm within 5.3 °C. Color-selective optical edge detection is verified by a series of chromatic images. This work introduces a thermally responsive liquid crystal device to release the color dimension of optical edge detection, which may upgrade existing imaging processing techniques.

A neural networks approach for designing compact all-optical photonic crystal based AND logic gate

Abstract This paper introduces a new method for creating an all-optical AND gate by utilizing a two-dimensional photonic crystal configuration for the first time. This gate design is intended for applications in optical computing and all-optical logic, offering the potential for rapid computation and parallel processing. The described gate is characterized by its compact dimensions and comprises two inputs and a single output. The high and low logic states are defined based on power values, where logic 0 corresponds to low power and logic 1 corresponds to high power emitted from the light source. To enhance the design process, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are utilized. ANNs offer a powerful tool for optimizing and fine-tuning the photonic crystal structure parameters to achieve the desired logic functionality. With the help of the applied ANNs, the design process is eased and high performance is achieved for the proposed photonic crystal structure. By integrating ANNs into the design process, this research opens up new possibilities for advancing the field of photonic logic circuits. Combining photonic crystals and ANN optimization provides a powerful approach to designing complex and efficient optical computing systems. The results show that the obtained power values are high for 1 logic state and low for the 0 logic state, which verifies the AND gate accuracy table. The achieved accurate results verify the validity of the proposed approach for achieving precise and reliable all-optical logic operations.

Analysis of a gas sensor based on one-dimensional photonic crystal structure with a designed defect cavity

A symmetric one-dimensional photonic crystal configuration with defect layer is proposed for an optical gas sensor based device application. Here, Silicon and Si3N4 are considered as materials of dielectric layers with zero value of extinction coefficient in the wavelength range of concern. The transmission of PC configuration is estimated using the transfer matrix approach in case of configuration with and without defect, and the infiltrated gas is treated as defect layer. On the basis of the defect mode’s wavelength, gas can be determined. In addition, quality factor and sensitivity of the device are improved due to the variation of refractive index of layer B, thickness of defect, angle of incidence and the number of unit cells on either side of defect layer. By making analysis of the effect of these parameters on the sensitivity and quality factor, interesting results have been obtained and conclusions drawn. We have also proposed and investigated a symmetric structure with defect made with a single material to improve optical sensing parameters. Further for the sake of comparison, the various gases are used to show improved sensing characteristics for respective gases, which can be used to determine gas. It is inferred that such refractive index optical sensor based on defect mode position is highly sensitive and offers precise optical sensing characteristics and possibly find applications in gas detection.

Generation of a Synthetic Database for the Optical Response of One-Dimensional Photonic Crystals Using Genetic Algorithms

This work proposes an optimization tool based on genetic algorithms for the inverse design of photonic crystals. Based on target reflectance, the algorithm generates a population of chromosomes where the genes represent the thickness of a layer of a photonic crystal. Each layer is independent of another. Therefore, the sequence obtained is a disordered configuration. In the genetic algorithm, two dielectric materials are first selected to generate the population. Throughout the simulation, the chromosomes are evaluated, crossed over, and mutated to find the best-fitted one based on an error function. The target reflectance was a perfect mirror in the visible region. As a result, it was found that obtaining photonic crystal configurations with a specific stop band with disordered arrangements is possible. The genetic information of the best-fitted individuals (layer sequence, optical response, and error) is stored in an h5 format. This method of generating artificial one-dimensional photonic crystal data can be used to train a neural network for solving the problem of the inverse design of any crystal with a specific optical response.

Slow-light effect in symmetry-reduced non-defect photonic crystals

In this study, a two-dimensional low-symmetric photonic crystal (PC) configuration with elliptical geometry is presented and its slow-light (SL) effect is investigated. Reducing the symmetry in the PC unit cell provides slow modes at the higher transverse electric bands. The calculated group index and the corresponding normalized bandwidth equal to {ng, BW}={63.56, 0.0065}. That corresponds to a value of figure of merit (FOM)=0.4344 defined by the product of the average group index and the normalized bandwidth, FOM=〈ng〉BW, which is comparable to the values available in literature. Tracing the whole edges of the Brillouin zone, strongly excited SL modes are observed only along Γ-X but not along Γ-X’ or Γ-M. That condition allows for the design of low-symmetric PC waveguides with finite thicknesses at the expense of lowering group index value. The SL effect is still obtained for the proposed low-symmetric PCs having finite thicknesses, which is numerically proved via finite-difference time-domain methods. It is important to note that non-dispersive SL Bloch modes exist through the non-zero k-vector components of Brillouin zone. Hence, such a defect-free (without either point- or line- defect) SL PC design may have a great potential for the use of compact photonic devices such as in optical switching and biochemical sensing applications.

Spontaneous emission enhancement based on thin-film chalcogenide/fluoride one dimensional photonic crystal

We report the fabrication of a one-dimensional photonic crystal microcavity via co-evaporation with electron beam/thermal evaporation process, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first rare-earth doped one-dimensional photonic crystal based on chalcogenide/fluoride thin films. The microcavity was made of a half-wave dysprosium doped Ga2Se3 layer sandwiched between two embedded Ga2Se3/YF3 distributed Bragg reflectors. Near infrared transmittance spectra indicated that the stopband region from 1090 nm to 1515 nm was formed and a cavity resonance centered at 1342 nm. A cavity quality factor of 153 was achieved resulting in a 53-fold enhancement in spontaneous emission intensity. This photonic crystal microcavity configuration offers a new route to mid-wavelength and long-wavelength infrared fluorescence enhancement, which has attracted considerable interest for potential applications, such as fluorescence-based imaging and biomedical sensing.

Cancer Biomarker Detection With Photonic Crystals-Based Biosensors: An Overview

This review wants to give an overview of the photonic crystals-based biosensors for cancer biomarkers detection. Indeed, in the last two decades, 1D, 2D, and 3D photonics crystals have seen an extraordinary development in the direction of medical diagnosis, health assessment, and therapy monitoring. Cancer-related biomarkers can span over a wide range of biological elements including circulating tumor DNA, miRNA, proteins, enzyme, metabolites, as well as circulating tumor cells. Therefore, the review is articulated in three sections reporting on the basics of the most common used 1D, 2D, and 3D photonic crystal configurations followed by the more recent biosensing applications in cancer biomarker detection. These devices include 1D truncated multilayers such as distributed Bragg reflectors and layered gratings, 2D ordered waveguiding slabs with particular emphasis on the micro/nano cavities, and 3D direct and inverse opals. Their added value can be resumed in the capability to strongly confine the electromagnetic radiation interacting more efficiently with the biological sample thus improving the limit of detection. In conclusions, photonic crystal-based biosensors hold great potential in the detection of cancer biomarkers thanks to their ultimate performances guarantying, in the near future, a versatile sensing tool to clinical personnel and physicians.

Tunable optical isolator using Graphene-photonic crystal-based hybrid system

In this article, an optical isolator is designed and simulated based on a hybrid configuration of the photonic crystal (PhC) and graphene. The PhC membrane is a hexagonal lattice of air holes arranged in a nonlinear silicon substrate. To provide a nonreciprocal transmission (optical isolator), breaking the symmetry of the light propagation path (the forth and back routes) is an essential condition. Here, the asymmetrical round trip of the light propagation and the Kerr-nonlinear effect are employed to obtain asymmetric propagation. The isolator structure includes a PhC waveguide that asymmetrically side-coupled to a specific embedded cavity. Then, to attain a tunable asymmetric transmission, a Nano-layer of graphene is located on the top of the mentioned PhC configuration. By altering the chemical potential of graphene one can control the isolation rate, frequency, and bandwidth of offered structure and thus possess a tunable optical isolator. The simulation results show that a 0.5 nm frequency shift can attain by the graphene chemical potential alterations from 0.45 eV to 0.65 eV in which it is suitable for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) communication and integrated optical circuits. Furthermore, as another advantage, a high forward normalized transmission (0.6) has resulted in a large average isolation rate of 32.5 dB due to low losses of the proposed structure.

High-Q surface electromagnetic wave resonance excitation in magnetophotonic crystals for supersensitive detection of weak light absorption in the near-infrared

The mid-infrared spectrum can be recorded from almost any material, making mid-infrared spectroscopy an extremely important and widely used sample characterization and analysis technique. However, sensitive photoconductive detectors operate primarily in the near-infrared (NIR), but not in the mid-infrared, making the NIR more favorable for accurate spectral analysis. Although the absorption cross section of vibrational modes in the NIR is orders of magnitude smaller compared to the fundamental vibrations in the mid-infrared, different concepts have been proposed to increase the detectability of weak molecular transitions overtones. Yet, the contribution of magnetophotonic structures in the NIR absorption effect has never been explored so far. Here we propose high-Q magnetophotonic structures for a supersensitive detection of weak absorption resonances in the NIR. We analyze the contributions of both magnetic and nonmagnetic photonic crystal configurations to the detection of weak molecular transitions overtones. Our results constitute an important step towards the development of highly sensitive spectroscopic tools based on high-Q magnetophotonic sensors.

Tunable dual pump parametric sources based on dispersion engineered photonic crystal fibers for communication wavelength.

A tunable FOPA, based on an ultraflat near-zero dispersion profile, has been carried out in this work for application in the communication wavelength based on a dual pumping scheme. It has been observed that the dispersion profile, especially the zero-dispersion wavelength, can be easily tuned close to the pumping wavelength by properly tuning the temperature of the photonic crystal fiber configuration, and a broadband spectrum can be obtained through proper tuning of the fiber around the C-band. Our investigation unravels the fact that, through proper tuning of the temperature, a uniform gain profile with broadband can be achieved based on the optimized ultraflat profile.

Kinetic bandgap analysis of plasma photonic crystals

The dispersion relation of plasma and plasma-dielectric photonic multilayer structures is approached in terms of a one-dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulation. For several plasma-dielectric configurations, the system response is obtained using a pulsed excitation and a subsequent two-dimensional frequency analysis. It is first shown that the dispersion relation of a single, homogeneous plasma slab is well described by the cold-plasma model even at a low pressure of 1 Pa. The study is extended to the simulation of plasma photonic crystals with a variety of configurations based on the work of Hojo and Mase [J. Plasma Fusion Res. 80, 89 (2004)]. Considering a one-dimensional plasma photonic crystal made from alternating layers of dielectric and homogeneous plasma slabs, it is shown that the assumption of a cold-plasma description is well justified also in this case. Moreover, in this work, the results are reformatted and analyzed in a band diagram representation, in particular, based on the lattice constant a. Based on these considerations, a scaling invariant representation is presented, utilizing a generalized set of parameters. The study is completed with an exemplary comparison of three plasma-dielectric photonic crystal configurations and their corresponding band diagrams.

Aberrated surface soliton formation in a nonlinear 1D and 2D photonic crystal

We discuss a novel type of surface soliton—aberrated surface soliton—appearance in a nonlinear one dimensional photonic crystal and a possibility of this surface soliton formation in two dimensional photonic crystal. An aberrated surface soliton possesses a nonlinear distribution of the wavefront. We show that, in one dimensional photonic crystal, the surface soliton is formed at the photonic crystal boundary with the ambient medium. Essentially, that it occupies several layers at the photonic crystal boundary and penetrates into the ambient medium at a distance also equal to several layers, so that one can infer about light energy localization at the lateral surface of the photonic crystal. In the one dimensional case, the surface soliton is formed from an earlier formed soliton that falls along the photonic crystal layers at an angle which differs slightly from the normal to the photonic crystal face. In the two dimensional case, the soliton can appear if an incident Gaussian beam falls on the photonic crystal face. The influence of laser radiation parameters, optical properties of photonic crystal layers and ambient medium on the one dimensional surface soliton formation is investigated. We also discuss the influence of two dimensional photonic crystal configuration on light energy localization near the photonic crystal surface. It is important that aberrated surface solitons can be created at relatively low laser pulse intensity and for close values of alternating layers dielectric permittivity which allows their experimental observation.

Detection of Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria (AOB) Using a Porous Silicon Optical Biosensor Based on a Multilayered Double Bragg Mirror Structure.

We successfully demonstrate a porous silicon (PS) double Bragg mirror by electrochemical etching at room temperature as a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) label-free biosensor for detecting ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). Compared to various other one-dimension photonic crystal configurations of PS, the double Bragg mirror structure is quite easy to prepare and exhibits interesting optical properties. The width of high reflectivity stop band of the PS double Bragg mirror is about 761 nm with a sharp and deep resonance peak at 1328 nm in the reflectance spectrum, which gives a high sensitivity and distinguishability for sensing performance. The detection sensitivity of such a double Bragg mirror structure is illustrated through the investigation of AOB DNA hybridization in the PS pores. The redshifts of the reflectance spectra show a good linear relationship with both complete complementary and partial complementary DNA. The lowest detection limit for complete complementary DNA is 27.1 nM and the detection limit of the biosensor for partial complementary DNA is 35.0 nM, which provides the feasibility and effectiveness for the detection of AOB in a real environment. The PS double Bragg mirror structure is attractive for widespread biosensing applications and provides great potential for the development of optical applications.

Rainbow trapping in a chirped three-dimensional photonic crystal

Light localization and intensity enhancement in a woodpile layer-by-layer photonic crystal, whose interlayer distance along the light propagation direction is gradually varied, has been theoretically predicted and experimentally demonstrated. The phenomenon is shown to be related to the progressive slowing down and stopping of the incident wave, as a result of the gradual variation of the local dispersion. The light localization is chromatically resolved, since every frequency component is stopped and reflected back at different positions along the crystal. It has been further discussed that the peculiar relation between the stopping position and the wave vector distribution can substantially increase the enhancement factor to more than two orders of magnitude. Compared to previously reported one- and two-dimensional photonic crystal configurations, the proposed scheme has the advantage of reducing the propagation losses by providing a three-dimensional photonic bandgap confinement in all directions. The slowing down and localization of waves inside photonic media can be exploited in optics and generally in wave dynamics, in many applications that require enhanced interaction of light and matter.

Tailoring the Photon Hopping by Nearest-Neighbor and Next-Nearest-Neighbor Interaction in Photonic Arrays

Arrays of photonic cavities are relevant structures for developing large-scale photonic integrated circuits and for investigating basic quantum electrodynamics phenomena due to the photon hopping between interacting nanoresonators. Here we investigate, by means of scanning near-field spectroscopy, numerical calculations and an analytical model, the role of different neighboring interactions that give rise to delocalized supermodes in different photonic crystal array configurations. The systems under investigation consist of three nominally identical two-dimensional photonic crystal nanocavities on membrane aligned along the two symmetry axes of the triangular photonic crystal lattice. We find that the nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor coupling terms can be of the same relevance. In this case, a nonintuitive picture describes the resonant modes, and the photon hopping between adjacent nanoresonators is strongly affected. Our findings prove that exotic configurations and even postfabrication engine...

Low-cross-talk and high-contrast all optical bistable switching based on coupled defects in a nonlinear photonic crystal cross-waveguide geometry

We present a photonic crystal all-optical bistable switch configuration consisting of crossing perpendicular waveguides geometry with instantaneous Kerr nonlinearity. A microcavity is added to the signal waveguide which is coupled with the defect at the waveguide intersection to increase the transmission contrast. We demonstrate with the finite-difference time-domain method that such a configuration can function as a low crosstalk and high contrast all-optical switch.

Zero phase delay with relax incident condition in photonic crystals

Based on the wavefront modulation of photonic crystal (PhC), zero phase delay of propagating electromagnetic wave (EMW) can be realized with a relaxed incident condition in the PhC. The phase velocity is modulated perpendicular to the group velocity with wavefronts extending along the direction of energy flow, which lead to the phenomenon of zero phase delay with a finite spatial period. This effect can be realized simultaneously in both positive and negative refracted waves. The phase difference between the incident and transmitted waves are measured within a wide incident angle region to demonstrate zero phase delay can be realized easily instead of zero-n or zero-averaged-n materials. Further investigations prove that the phenomena of zero phase delay induced by this way can also be realized easily in various PhC configurations and can be accurately manipulated by changing the incident angle or the flexible design of PhC configuration.

Double-layer Fano resonance photonic crystal filters

We report ultra-compact surface-normal high-Q optical filters based on single- and double-layer stacked Fano resonance photonic crystal slabs on both Si and quartz substrates. A single layer photonic crystal filter was designed and a Q factor of 1,737 was obtained with 23 dB extinction ratio. With stacked double-layer photonic crystal configuration, the optical filter Q can increase to over 10,000,000 in design. Double-layer filters with quality factor of 9,734 and extinction ratio of 8 dB were experimentally demonstrated, for a filter design with target Q of 22,000.