Photonic-crystal Coupled-resonator Optical Waveguide Research Articles

Slow light effect with high group index and wideband by saddle-like mode in PC-CROW

Slow light with high group index and wideband is achieved in photonic crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguides (PC-CROWs). According to the eye-shaped scatterers and various microcavities, saddle-like curves between the normalized frequency f and wave number k can be obtained by adjusting the parameters of the scatterers, parameters of the coupling microcavities, and positions of the scatterers. Slow light with decent flat band and group index can then be achieved by optimizing the parameters. Simulations prove that the maximal value of the group index is > 104, and the normalized delay bandwidth product within a new varying range of n g > 102 or n g > 103 can be a new and effective criterion of evaluation for the slow light in PC-CROWs.

High sensitivity electro-optic modulation of slow light in ellipse rods PC-CROW

A tunable slow light with low group velocity, high buffer performance and high sensitivity is realized in photonic crystal coupled resonator optical waveguide (PC-CROW) with elliptical rod around cavity. By adjusting the long axis and short axis of the elliptical rods, the slow light and buffer performance of PC-CROW are optimized. As ae=0.42a, be=0.20a, the group velocity is below 2.3053×10−4c, simultaneously, the buffer capacity C and delay time Ts reach the optimum value of 9.8214bit and 354.8ps. Then the dynamic modulation of the slow light and buffer performance based on this optimized structure has been discussed systematically. Thanks to the electro-optic effect of the polystyrene substrate, the guided mode shifts linearly to short wavelength in sensitivity of 3.0nm/mV around 1550nm, as the applied voltage increases. The modulation sensitivities of delay time and buffer capacity are 0.445ns/mV and 0.051bit/mV, respectively. These results show a considerable potential for this structure that can be dynamically controlled according to the practical requirements by electro-optic effect in PC-CROW.

Three-Dimensional Finite-Element Time-Domain Beam Propagation Method and Its Application to 1-D Photonic Crystal-Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguide

A 3-D finite-element time-domain beam propagation method is described for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, for the analysis of transmission characteristics of any kind of photonic structures. In order to avoid nonphysical reflections from computational window edges, the perfectly matched layer boundary condition is introduced. Furthermore, the present method can treat wideband optical pulses owing to the use of Pade approximation. The validity of this method is verified by numerical simulations of a photonic crystal cavity and a microring resonator. In addition, in order to demonstrate the usefulness of the developed method, a taper waveguide for a highly efficient connection between a straight waveguide and a 1-D photonic crystal-coupled resonator optical waveguide is designed.

Slow light enhanced correlated photon pair generation in photonic-crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguides

We demonstrate the generation of quantum-correlated photon pairs from a Si photonic-crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguide. A slow-light supermode realized by the collective resonance of high-Q and small-mode-volume photonic-crystal cavities successfully enhanced the efficiency of the spontaneous four-wave mixing process. The generation rate of photon pairs was improved by two orders of magnitude compared with that of a photonic-crystal line defect waveguide without a slow-light effect.

Tight-binding calculation of radiation loss in photonic crystal CROW

The tight binding approximation (TBA) is used to relate the intrinsic, radiation loss of a coupled resonator optical waveguide (CROW) to that of a single constituent resonator within a light cone picture. We verify the validity of the TBA via direct, full-field simulation of CROWs based on the L2 photonic crystal cavity. The TBA predicts that the quality factor of the CROW increases with that of the isolated cavity. Moreover, our results provide a method to design CROWs with low intrinsic loss across the entire waveguide band.

Slow light enhanced optical nonlinearity in a silicon photonic crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguide

We demonstrate highly enhanced optical nonlinearity in a coupled-resonator optical waveguide (CROW) in a four-wave mixing experiment. Using a CROW consisting of 200 coupled resonators based on width-modulated photonic crystal nanocavities in a line defect, we obtained an effective nonlinear constant exceeding 10,000 /W/m, thanks to slow light propagation combined with a strong spatial confinement of light achieved by the wavelength-sized cavities.

Slow light with low group-velocity dispersion at the edge of photonic graphene

We theoretically study the light propagation at the zigzag edges of a honeycomb photonic crystal (PC), or photonic graphene. It is found that the corresponding edge states have a sinusoidal dispersion similar to those found in PC coupled resonator optical waveguides [CROWs; M. Notomi et al., Nature Photon. 2, 741 (2008)]. The sinusoidal dispersion curve can be made very flat by carefully tuning edge parameters. As a result, low group velocity and small group velocity dispersion can be simultaneously obtained for light propagating at the zigzag edge of photonic graphene. Compared with PC CROWs, our slow-light system exhibits no intrinsic radiation loss and has a larger group velocity bandwidth product. Our results could find applications in on-chip optical buffers and enhanced light-matter interaction.

Dynamic group velocity control in a mechanically tunable photonic-crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguide

We describe a tunable slow light device based on a photonic-crystal with a mechanically adjustable coupled-resonator optical waveguide structure. The lateral energy confinement is implemented along a lattice shear defect with the group velocity actively controlled by shifting the shear along the defect interface over a distance of one crystal period. The group velocity tuning range can be anywhere from arbitrarily small (determined by the waveguide structure) to near the value expected in bulk media. We present the theory and a demonstration (via simulation) of a device configuration that is realistic to fabricate and achieves a tunable range of group velocity spanning at least three orders of magnitude. The conditions for stopping the light are also discussed for different configurations.

Miniband transmission in a photonic crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguide

We demonstrate in the near infrared the coupled-resonator optical waveguide (CROW) concept that was recently proposed by Yariv et al. [Opt. Lett.24, 711 (1999)]. Two-dimensional photonic crystals have been used to define, in a GaAs-based waveguiding heterostructure, an array of micrometer-sized hexagonal cavities coupled through thin walls. With the photoexcitation of InAs quantum dots as an internal source, the transmission spectra of the coupled resonators show marked minibands and minigaps, in agreement with theoretical predictions.