Broadband NIR emission in novel sol-gel Er3+-doped SiO 2-Nb2O5 glass ceramic planar waveguides for photonic applications

This paper reports on the sol-gel preparation and structural and optical characterization of new Er3+-doped SiO2-Nb 2O5 nanocomposite planar waveguides. Erbium-doped (100-x)SiO2-xNb2O5 waveguides were deposited on silica-on-silicon substrates and Si(1 0 0) by the dip-coating technique. The waveguides exhibited uniform refractive index distribution across the thickness, efficient light injection at 1538 nm, and low losses at 632 and 1538 nm. The band-gap values lied between 4.12 eV and 3.55 eV for W1-W5, respectively, showing an excellent transparency in the visible and near infrared region for the waveguides. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy analysis evidenced SiO2-Nb2O5 nanocomposite formation with controlled phase separation in the films. The HRTEM and XRD analyses revealed Nb2O5 orthorhombic T-phase nanocrystals dispersed in a silica-based host. Photoluminescence (PL) analysis showed a broad band emission at 1531 nm, assigned to the 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 transition of the Er3+ ions present in the nanocomposite, with a full-width at half medium of 48-68 nm, depending on the niobium content and annealing. Hence, these waveguides are excellent candidates for application in integrated optics, especially in EDWA and WDM devices. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Novel wideband active waveguide photonic crystal polarisation selector

We have designed and fabricated a broadband and compact polarisation selector using a photonic crystal at the junction of two intersecting active waveguides. The crystal shows >8dB polarisation selectivity over a 70nm range. © 2003 Optical Society of America.

Optical waveguides and switches based on periodic arrays of carbon nanotubes

This document presents the modeling and characterization of novel optical devices based on periodic arrays of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes can be grown in the arrangement of two-dimensional arrays of precisely determined dimensions. Having their dimensions comparable to the wavelength of light makes carbon nanotubes good candidates for utilization in nano-scale optical devices. We report that highly dense periodic arrays of multiwalled carbon nanotubes can be utilized as sub-wavelength structures for establishing advanced optical materials, such as metamaterials and photonic crystals. We demonstrate that when carbon nanotubes are grown close together at spacing of the order of few hundred nanometers, they display artificial optical properties towards the incident light, acting as metamaterials. By utilizing these properties we have established micro-scaled plasmonic high pass filter which operates in the optical domain. Highly dense arrays of multiwalled also offer a periodic dielectric constant to the incident light and display interesting photonic band gaps, which are frequency domains within which on wave propagation can take place. We have utilized these band gaps displayed by a periodic nanotube array, having 400 nm spacing, to construct photonic crystals based optical waveguides and switches. © 2011 IEEE.

Active glass-polymer superlattice structure for photonic integration.

We propose an all-laser processing approach allowing controlled growth of organic-inorganic superlattice structures of rare-earth ion doped tellurium-oxide-based glass and optically transparent polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) polymer; the purpose of which is to illustrate the structural and thermal compatibility of chemically dissimilar materials at the nanometer scale. Superlattice films with interlayer thicknesses as low as 2 nm were grown using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at low temperatures (100 °C). Planar waveguides were successfully patterned by femtosecond-laser micro-machining for light propagation and efficient Er(3+)-ion amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The proposed approach to achieve polymer-glass integration will allow the fabrication of efficient and durable polymer optical amplifiers and lossless photonic devices. The all-laser processing approach, discussed further in this paper, permits the growth of films of a multitude of chemically complex and dissimilar materials for a range of optical, thermal, mechanical and biological functions, which otherwise are impossible to integrate via conventional materials processing techniques.

Flexible Control of Light Propagation Using a Novel Photonic Crystal Hetero-Waveguide Based on Silicon-on-Insulator Slab

We demonstrate a photonic crystal hetero-waveguide based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) slab, consisting of two serially connected width-reduced photonic crystal waveguides with different radii of the air holes adjacent to the waveguide. We show theoretically that the transmission window of the structure corresponds to the transmission range common to both waveguides and it is in inverse proportion to the discrepancy between the two waveguides. Also the group velocity of guided mode can be changed from low to high or high to low, depending on which port of the structure the signal is input from just in the same device, and the variation is proportional to the discrepancy between the two waveguides. Using this novel structure, we realize flexible control of transmission window and group velocity of guided mode simultaneously.

Design of a compact polarization beam splitter based on a deformed photonic crystal directional coupler

In this paper a compact polarization beam splitter based on a deformed photonic crystal directional coupler is designed and simulated. The transverse-electric (TE) guided mode and transverse-magnetic (TM) guided mode are split due to different guiding mechanisms. The effect of the shape deformation of the air holes on the coupler is studied. It discovered that the coupling strength of the coupled waveguides is strongly enhanced by introducing elliptical airholes, which reduce the device length to less than 18.5 mu m. A finite-difference time-domain simulation is performed to evaluate the performance of the device, and the extinction ratios for both TE and TM polarized light are higher than 20 dB.

A photonic wire-based directional coupler based on SOI

A photonic wire-based directional coupler based on SOI was fabricated by e-beam lithography (EBL) and the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching method. The size of the sub-micron waveguide is 0.34 mu m x 0.34 mu m, and the length in the coupling region and the separation between the two parallel waveguides are 410 and 0.8 mu m, respectively. The measurement results are in good agreement with the results simulated by 3D finite-difference time-domain method. The transmission power from two output ports changed reciprocally with about 23 nm wavelength spacing between the coupled and direct ports. The extinction ratio of the device was between 5 and 10 dB, and the insertion loss of the device in the wavelength range 1520-1610 nm was between 22 and 24 dB, which included an about 18.4 +/- 0.4 dB coupling loss between the taper fibers and the polished sides of the device. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Compact four-channel reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer using silicon photonic wire

We designed and fabricated a four-channel reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer based on silicon photonic wire waveguide, which is controlled through the thermo-optic effect. The effective footprint of the device is about 1000 x 500 mu m(2). The minimum insertion loss including the transmission loss and coupling loss is about 10.7 dB. The tuning bandwidth is about 17 nm, the average tuning efficiency about 6.11 mW/nm and the tuning speed about 24.5 kHz. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reduced divergence angle of photonic crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

The reduced divergence angle of the photonic crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (PC-VCSEL) was investigated in both theory and experiment. The photonic crystal waveguide possessed the weakly guiding waveguide characteristic, which accounted for the reduction of the divergence angle. The three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method was used to simulate the designed PC-VCSEL, and a calculated divergence angle of 5.2 degrees was obtained. The measured divergence angles of our fabricated PC-VCSEL were between 5.1 degrees and 5.5 degrees over the entire drive current range, consistent with the numerical results. This is the lowest divergence angle of the fabricated PC-VCSEL ever reported.

Design and Fabrication of a Photonic Crystal Channel Drop Filter Based on an Asymmetric Silicon-on-Insulator Slab

We report on the design and fabrication of a photonic crystal (PC) channel drop filter based on an asymmetric silicon-on-insulator (SOI) slab. The filter is composed of two symmetric stick-shape micro-cavities between two single-line-defect (W1) waveguides in a triangular lattice, and the phase matching condition for the filter to improve the drop efficiency is satisfied by modifying the positions and radii of the air holes around the micro-cavities. A sample is then fabricated by using electron beam lithography (EBL) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching processes. The measured 0 factor of the filter is about 1140, and the drop efficiency is estimated to be 73% +/- 5% by fitting the transmission spectrum.

Experimental Demonstration on Structure-Parameter Dependence of Photonic Crystal Optical Spectrum

We present fabrication and experimental measurement of a series of photonic crystal waveguides and coupled structure of PC waveguide and PC micro-cavity. The complete devices consist of an injector taper down from 3 mu m into a triangular-lattice air-holes single-line-defect waveguide. We fabricated these devices on a silicon-on-insulator substrate and characterized them using tunable laser source. We've obtained high-efficiency light propagation and broad flat spectrum response of photonic-crystal waveguides. A sharp attenuation at photonic crystal waveguide mode edge was observed for most structures. The edge of guided band is shifted about 31 nm with the 10 nm increase of lattice constant. Mode resonance was observed in coupled structure. Our experimental results indicate that the optical spectra of photonic crystal are very sensitive to structure parameters.

Realization of an ultracompact low-loss photonic crystal corner mirror

We report on the realization and characterization of an ultracompact, low-loss, and broadband corner mirror based on photonic crystals (PCs). By modifying the boundary layers of the PC region, extra losses of 1.1 +/- 0.4 dB per corner mirror are achieved for transverse-electronic polarization for silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguides fabricated by electron beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma etching. Dimensions of the PC corner mirror are less than 7 x 7 mu m(2), which are only about one tenth of conventional waveguide corner mirrors.

A proposal for low cross-talk square-lattice photonic crystal waveguide intersection utilizing the symmetry of waveguide modes

We propose an approach to construct waveguide intersections with broad bandwidth and low cross-talk for square-lattice photonic crystals. by utilizing a vanishing overlap of the propagation modes in the waveguides created by defects which support dipole-like defect modes. The finite-difference time-domain method is used to simulate the waveguide intersection created in the two-dimensional square-lattice photonic crystals. Over a bandwidth of 30 nm with the center wavelength at 1300 nm, transmission efficiency above 90% is obtained with cross-talk below -30 dB. Especially, we demonstrate the transmission of a 500-fs pulse at 1.3 Am through the intersection, and the pulse after transmission shows very little distortion while the cross-talk remains at low level meantime. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optical interleaver based on directional coupler in a 2D photonic crystal slab with triangular lattice of air holes

A small-size optical interleaver based on directional coupler in a 2D photonic crystal slab with triangular lattice of air holes is designed and theoretically simulated using plane wave expansion and finite-difference time-domain method. The interleaver is formed by two parallel and identical photonic crystal slab waveguides which are separated by three rows of air holes. The coupling region is designed below the light line to avoid vertical radiation. The simulated results show that the coupling coefficient is increased and the final length of the interleaver is decreased by enlarging the radius of the middle row of air holes. The transmission properties are analyzed after the interleaver's structure is optimized, and around 100 GHz channel spacing can be got when the length of the interleaver is chosen as 40.5 mu m. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.