Lecture 7: Photonic Crystal Waveguides

And Photonic Circuits

5 nm
Super-lens and Super-prism effects

H. Kosaka et al, Phys. Rev. B. 58, 10096, 1998

H. Kosaka et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 74, 1370, 1999

 frequency circle
Snell’s law in terms of a constant frequency circle

Example: using constant frequency diagram to derive Snell’s law and

the condition for total internal reflection.
y "2
n 2 = kx2 + k y2
2
Snell’s law
c

x
n1 = 1 θ1

n2 = 1.5
θ2

n1 sin"1 = n2 sin" 2
 crystal
Constant frequency contour in a 2D crystal

Constant frequency diagram for the first band

• At low frequencies, the constant frequency diagram approaches a circle, the photonic crystal
behaves as a uniform dielectric as far as diffraction is concerned
• With increasing frequencies, the constant frequency contour becomes more complicated,
leading to effects including superprism, superlens, negative refraction, and self-collimation.

Luo et al, Phys. Rev. B 65, 201104, 2002; M. Notomi, Phys. Rev. B 62, 10692, 2000
 Super-lens and constant frequency

ω=0.165 2πc/a

Air

M
P. C.

Γ X

Vg = ∂ k ω(k) group velocity

 Photonic Band Engineering

Vg = ∂k ω(k) group velocity

 All-angle negative refraction

Source Image

Photonic crystal

• An all-convex constant frequency contour.

• All incoming wave are included within the
constant frequency contour of the photonic
crystal.
• The frequency is below 0.5 2πc/a.

Luo et al, Phys. Rev. B 65, 201104, 2002

 3D Photonic crystals and PC slabs

• 3D photonic crystals.
• Photonic crystal slab structures.
• Omnidirectional reflectors.
 band gap
3D photonic crystal with complete band gap
34 % when spheres are touching each other

Complete band gap observed in both air spheres and dielectric spheres
Refractive index ratio needs to exceed 2 in order for band gap to open
Optimal structure consists of connected dielectric and air networks.

Ho, Chan, Soukoulis, PRL, 65, 3152 (1990)

 practical 3d structures
Variants of diamond structure, practical 3d structures

Chan et al, Solid State Communication, 89, 413-6 (1994)

S. Lin et al, Nature, vol. 394, p. 251-3, (1998)

 structures
Self-assembled 3D photonic crystal structures

Y. Vaslov et al, Nature, vol. 414, p. 289, (2001)

 Photonic crystal slab structures

Low-index materials

High-index materials

In plane 2D photonic band gap provides complete in plane confinement.

Out of plane confinement provided by high index guiding

Ease of fabrication
In complete confinement in the third dimension
 crystal slabs
Photonic band diagram for photonic crystal slabs

Radiation modes above the light line.

Losslessly guided modes below the light line.
Incomplete band gap in the guided mode spectrum
 uniform slab
Light line and radiation modes in a uniform slab

Light line separates the radiation modes from the guided modes.

Light-line
ω ω=ck/n
air
Radiation Guided
dielectric modes modes

air

k k

Below the light line, i.e. k > ω/c, electromagnetic field decays
exponentially away from the dielectric slab.
 with period a
Uniform slab, repeated zone scheme with period a
a

-2π/a -π/a 0 π/a 2π/a k

 Effect of in-plane index contrast

1 2

"!%
2 ( dr ) (r )
* + H(r) ω
$# '& = 2
c ( dr H(r)
Upper frequency Guided resonance
cutoff
Photonic band gap
ω = 0.5*2πc/a

k
-π/a π/a
 Photonic crystal LED

Pump wavelength
Photonic Crystal

20 1.0
enhancement

reflectivity

10 0.5
Uniform region
0 0.0
700 800 900 1000
wavelength (nm)

S. Fan et al, Physical Review Letters, 78, 3294 (1997);

A. A. Erchak, D. J. Ripin, S. Fan et al, Applied Physics Letters, 78, 563 (2001)
 dielectric film
Strong reflection from a single dielectric film

r=0.4a

Frequency (c/a)
W. Suh, M. F. Yanik, O. Solgaard, S. Fan, Applied Physics Letters, 82, 1999 (2003).

O. Kinic, W. Suh, S. Kim, A. Sudbo, M. F. Yanik, S. Fan and O. Solgaard, Optics Letters, (in press)
 Photonic crystal LED

Pump wavelength
Photonic Crystal

20 1.0
enhancement

reflectivity

10 0.5
Uniform region
0 0.0
700 800 900 1000
wavelength (nm)

S. Fan et al, Physical Review Letters, 78, 3294 (1997);

A. A. Erchak, D. J. Ripin, S. Fan et al, Applied Physics Letters, 78, 563 (2001)
 Waveguides in dielectric slabs

Magnetic field
Oxide

Si

0.40
Frequency (c/a)

0.35 Radiation modes

0.30
gap
0.25 Slab modes

0.20

0.15
0.30 0.40 0.50 -1.0 0.0 1.0
Wavevector (2π/a)
 multi-layer film
Omni-directional reflection from multi-layer film

TE modes (s) TM modes (p)

H E
E H

parallel wavevector

n1 = 4.6, n2 = 1.6

Fink, Winn, Fan, et al, Science. 282, 1679, 1998.