Design and analysis of a phase modulator based on a metal-polymer-silicon hybrid plasmonic waveguide

A plasmonic-hybrid-waveguide-based optical phase modulator is proposed and analyzed. The field enhancement in the low-index high-nonlinear polymer layer provides nanoscale optical confinement and a fast optical modulation speed. At 2.5 V drive voltage, a π phase shift can be obtained for a 13-μm-long plasmonic waveguide. Because of its small capacitance and parasitic resistance, the modulation bandwidth can reach up to 100 GHz with a low power consumption of ～9 fJ/bit. The plasmonic waveguide is connected to a silicon wire waveguide via an adiabatic taper with a coupling efficiency of ～91%. The phase modulator can find potential applications in optical telecommunication and interconnects.     

Achromatic waveguide coupling with a hybrid grating-mirror

A new grating coupler that incorporates a hybrid grating-mirror is proposed. An analysis of the device indicates that it has a much larger achromatic range than that of conventional grating couplers, as well as a relaxed fabrication requirement for the grating.     

Zero-radius potential model for a planar waveguide in a photonic crystal

A zero-radius potential model is proposed to describe a waveguide in a planar crystal. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases are considered. Layers, waveguides, and coupled waveguides are described. Explicit model dispersion equations are derived and the spectral properties are described. Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 25, 45–49 (August 26, 1999)     

The defect mode in a low-dimensional waveguide microwave photonic crystal

It is shown that the violation of periodicity in a low-dimensional waveguide microwave photonic crystal, in which the periodic structure is formed by dielectric layers and adjacent metal plates partly overlapping the waveguide cross section and forming capacitive gaps between the plate edge and wide wall of the waveguide, leads to the appearance of a defect (impurity) mode. It is established that the defect mode position on the frequency scale significantly depends on both the thickness of “disturbed” dielectric layer and the capacitive gap width of diaphragms.

     

Propagation of Bessel-X pulses in a hybrid photonic crystal

We report the propagation of Bessel-X pulses in a two-dimensional hybrid photonic crystal, investigated by the finite-difference time-domain method, in which broadband super-collimation and the propagation of self-collimated ultrashort pulses were reported. We first show the propagation of Bessel-X pulses in two-dimensional free space, whose transverse branches diverge rapidly with propagation. We then show that Bessel-X pulses propagate with their transverse and longitudinal shapes almost unchanged in the hybrid photonic crystal.     

Numerical investigation of electrostatic effect on particle behavior in a 90 degrees bend

Particle behavior in a turbulent circular-sectioned 90° bend under electrostatic field at three air flow rates (1600 L/min, 1100 L/min and 950 L/min, the corresponding bulk Reynolds numbers are 58,000, 40,000, 34,000) is simulated by a Large Eddy Simulation-Lagrangian particle tracking technique (LES-LPT) method coupled with electrostatic field model by Coulomb’s law. This numerical simulation is dedicated to study the electrostatic effect on particle behavior and erosion occurred in the dilute particle-laden bend flow. Forces considered acting on particles includes drag, lift, gravity and electrostatic force. Results obtained for the fluid phase are in good agreement with experimental and numerical data. Predictions show that electrostatic field does affect the particle motion in the pipe bend. At higher air flow rate with higher electrostatics at the inner arc the increasement of impact angle is lower than that at lower flow rate with lower electrostatics. The same conclusion can be found at the outer arc. In addition, electrostatic effect does increase particle-wall impact velocity while such trend decreases with flow rate. Erosion rate increases with increasing air flow rate, which is independent of electrostatics. However, given the same flow rate, the electrostatics reduces the occurrence of erosion at the bend. The erosion rate under electrostatic effect is found to approach that without electrostatics as the flow rate increases. Therefore, the effect of electrostatics on erosion decreases with the air flow rate.     

Role of photonic bandgaps in polarization-independent grating waveguide structures

Polarization independence in a one-dimensional resonant grating waveguide structure involves the simultaneous excitation of two guided modes propagating in different directions. Possible simultaneous excitations occur when the two excited guided modes have either the same polarization, i.e., TE-TE (transverse electric) or TM-TM (transverse magnetic), or different polarizations, i.e., TE-TM. Simultaneous excitations may result in bandgaps and singularities. We confirm and show that in order to achieve polarization independence, it is necessary to find the conditions that minimize the effects of such bandgaps and singularities and experimentally demonstrate tunable polarization independence for simultaneously excited TE-TM-guided modes.     

Three-dimensional free vibration analysis of thick laminated annular sector plates using a hybrid method

An accurate and efficient solution procedure based on the three-dimensional elasticity theory for the free vibration analysis of thick laminated annular sector plates is presented. Plates with simply supported radial edges and arbitrary boundary conditions on their circular edges are considered. In order to accurately model the variation of material properties across the thickness, the layerwise theory is used to approximate the displacement components in this direction. Then, employing the Hamilton’s principle together with the modal analysis, through-the-thickness and circumferential discretized form of the equations of motion and the related boundary conditions are obtained. Finally, the differential quadrature method (DQM) as an efficient and accurate numerical method is applied to discretize the resulting variable coefficients differential equations in the radial direction. The fast rate of convergence of the method is demonstrated and to show its high accuracy, comparison studies with the available results in the literature are made. Finally, some new results are prepared, which can be used as benchmark solutions for future works.     

Analysis of photonic crystal waveguide gratings with coupled-mode theory and a finite-element method

Both rod and air-hole types of photonic crystal waveguide gratings are proposed and their coupling coefficients and transmission characteristics are effectively investigated by using a simple coupled-mode theory combined with a finite-element method. The results obtained are compared with the results obtained by using a full numerical simulation method. A new definition for unperturbed waveguides is introduced to obtain accurate coupling coefficients. It is shown that, by using a pi-phase-shifted waveguide structure in the case of an air-hole type of photonic crystal waveguide grating, the coupling coefficient is strongly enhanced. The accuracy of the method is discussed through numerical examples of high-index-contrast waveguide gratings.     

Wideband slow light with ultralow dispersion in a W1 photonic crystal waveguide

A dispersion tailoring scheme for obtaining slow light in a silicon-on-insulator W1-type photonic crystal waveguide, novel to our knowledge, is proposed in this paper. It is shown that, by simply shifting the first two rows of air holes adjacent to the waveguide to specific directions, slow light with large group-index, wideband, and low group-velocity dispersion can be realized. Defining a criterion of restricting the group-index variation within a ±0.8% range as a flattened region, we obtain the ultraflat slow light with bandwidths over 5.0, 4.0, 2.5, and 1.0 nm when keeping the group index at 38.0, 48.8, 65.2, and 100.4, respectively. Numerical simulations are performed utilizing the three-dimensional (3D) plane-wave expansion method and the 3D finite-difference time-domain method.     

Design of photonic crystal-based all-optical AND gate using T-shaped waveguide

Abstract

We present a new configuration of all-optical AND gate based on two-dimensional photonic crystal composed of Si rods in air. Two AND gate structures with and without probe input are proposed. The proposed structures are designed with T-shaped waveguide without using nonlinear materials and optical amplifiers. The performance of the proposed AND gate structures is analyzed and simulated by plane-wave expansion and finite difference time domain methods. The AND gate without probe input needs only one T-shaped waveguide, whereas the AND gate with probe input needs two T-shaped waveguides. The former AND gate offers a bit rate of 6.26 Tbps with a contrast ratio of 5.74 dB, whereas the latter AND gate offers a bit rate of 3.58 Tbps whose contrast ratio is 9.66 dB. It can be expected that these small size T-shaped structures are suitable for large-scale integration and can potentially be used in on-chip photonic integrated circuits.     

Nonlinear analysis of a photonic crystal laser

An approximate nonlinear analysis of light generation in two-dimensional square- and triangular-lattice photonic crystal lasers including gain saturation effects is presented for the TE modes. This model extends earlier studies which took into account only TM modes. Our approach is based on coupled mode theory. With the help of an energy theorem and a threshold field approximation an approximate formula relating the small signal gain required to obtain a given output power to the structure parameters has been obtained. It has been used to calculate laser characteristics revealing an optimum coupling strength for which laser structure achieves maximum power efficiency.     

Experimental demonstration of photonic bandgaps in azopolymer resonant waveguide grating systems

Photonic bandgaps are demonstrated in one-dimensional corrugated waveguides in the infrared range. A coupling grating is superimposed with single and double Bragg gratings on an azopolymer film by a simple optical process, which allows easy control of the grating spacing. Light is coupled to the TE(0) resonant mode, and gaps in the dispersion curve are introduced by careful selection of the gratings. The analysis is carried out by measuring the transmission through the waveguide as a function of the wavelength and angle of incidence of a probe beam. This results in a direct measurement of the dispersion curves, which are in excellent agreement with theory.     

Wideband and low dispersion slow-light waveguide based on a photonic crystal with crescent-shaped air holes

We present a procedure to generate slow light with a large group index, wideband, and low dispersion in our suggested photonic crystal waveguide. By modulation of the declinations in the first two rows of air holes, the group index, the bandwidth, and the dispersion can be tuned effectively. Utilizing the two-dimensional plane wave expansion method (PWE) and the finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD), we demonstrate slow light with the group indices of 23, 35, and 45, respectively, while restricting the group-index variation within a 10% range. We accordingly attain an available bandwidth of 40.7, 23.7, and 5.1?nm, respectively. Meanwhile, the normalized delay-bandwidth product stays around 0.45, with minimal dispersion less than 0.2 (ps²/m) for all the cases.     

Highly efficient coupling in lithium niobate photonic wires by the use of a segmented waveguide coupler

The purpose of this article is to show that efficient light coupling in lithium niobate waveguides presenting a strongly confined mode, such as photonic wires, is possible with the use of a periodically segmented waveguide coupler. The coupler consists in an input periodically segmented waveguide whose mode size is adapted to the mode of a standard single-mode fiber coupled to a photonic wire whose mode size is of the same order of the wavelength. The periodic segmentation of the input waveguide allows fulfilling the phase matching condition necessary to achieve an efficient light transfer between these waveguides. The coupling efficiency is typically 5 times higher than the butt-coupled configuration.     

Cylindrical hybrid plasmonic waveguide for subwavelength confinement of light

A novel cylindrical hybrid plasmonic waveguide is proposed to achieve subwavelength confinement of light. With a metal core surrounded by a silica layer and a silicon layer, the proposed cylindrical hybrid plasmonic waveguide can achieve a ring-structure mode profile at the operating wavelength (1550 nm). Most mode power locates in the silica layer with a nanoscale thickness (e.g., 50, 20, or even 5 nm), which is due to the effects of both a strong discontinuity of the normal component of the electric field at the silicon-silica interface and the exited surface plasmon wave at the silica-metal interface. Cylindrical hybrid plasmonic waveguides with different structure parameters are investigated and a relatively long propagation distance of tens of micrometers (or even hundreds of micrometers) is observed.     

Design, fabrication, and characterization of Si-based ARROW photonic crystal bend waveguides and power splitters

Silicon-based (Si-based) photonic crystal waveguide based on antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW PCW) structures consisting of 60° bends and Y-branch power splitters were designed and first efficiently fabricated and characterized. The ARROW structure has a relatively large core size suitable for efficient coupling with a single-mode fiber. Simple capsule-shaped topography defects at 60° photonic crystal (PC) bend corners and Y-branch PC power splitters were used for increasing the broadband light transmission. In the preliminary measurements, the propagation losses of the ARROW PC straight waveguides lower than 2 dB/mm with a long length of 1500?μm were achieved. The average bend loss of 60° PC bend waveguides was lower than 3 dB/bend. For the Y-branch PC power splitters, the average power imbalance was lower than 0.6?dB. The results show that our fabricated Si-based ARROW PCWs with 60° bends and Y-branch structures can provide good light transmission and power-splitting ability.     

TM and TE propagating modes of photonic crystal waveguide based on honeycomb lattices

The waveguide based on the honeycomb photonic crystal has propagating modes for both the TE and TM polarizations. The group index-normalized frequency curves are U-shaped for the two polarizations. The average group index of the TE mode is approximately 3, while the average group index of the TM mode is over 10, which implies that the TM mode is a slow light mode. With the shift value 0 ≤ δx ≤ 0.025a, the group index is over 10 and the normalized delay-bandwidth product is from 0.316 to 0.349, which is ideal for the slow light mode of the TM polarization. In the group velocity dispersion of the waveguide, there is a very large "zero" dispersion region for both the TM and TE modes, which is far larger than that of other photonic crystal waveguides. The TM mode of this kind of waveguide structure is a slow light mode with wide bandwidth and a large "zero" dispersion region.     

Self-collimated waveguide bends and partial bandgap reflection of photonic crystals with parallelogram lattice

The photonic crystal structure with parallelogram lattice, capable of bending a self-collimated wave with free angles and partial bandgap reflection, is presented. The equifrequency contours show that the direction of the collimation wave can be turned by tuning the angle between the two basic vectors of the lattice. Acute, right, and obtuse angles of collimating waveguide bends have been realized by arc lattices of parallelogram photonic crystals. Moreover, partial bandgap reflection of the parallelogram lattice photonic crystals is validated from the equifrequency contours and the projected band structures. A waveguide taper based on this partial bandgap reflection is also designed and proved to have above 85% transmittance over a very wide operating bandwidth of 180 nm.     

Three-dimensional metallo-dielectric photonic crystals with cubic symmetry as stacks of two-dimensional screens

Metallo-dielectric photonic crystals with cubic symmetries have been studied here both experimentally and theoretically in the millimeter wavelength region (15-60 mm). In a direct analogy to linear systems, we considered the three-dimensional lattices as a stack of two-dimensional resonating screens. The overall three-dimensional structure was introduced in the calculation through a structural phase. Such an approach proved useful in understanding the related mode propagation and guided us in a study of the transition between cubic and centered body cubic symmetries.