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Comparison of Three L-Shaped bent Photonic Crystal

Yu-Jen Lin *, Keh-Yi Lee **


* Instrument Technology Research Center, National Applied Research Laboratories,
Shinchu, Taiwan, ROC.
** Department of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan,
ROC.

Summary The 90-degree (L-shaped) wavelength of the input light is chosen


bent channel waveguide plays an within the band gap of the perfect
important role of the integrated optical photonic crystal, such that the whole
device. It provides the more flexible lightwave propagates only along the
layout of the device than the small-angle channel created by the linear vacancies.
bent waveguide because the device can In this way, no radiation loss occurs.
be reduced in area. In this paper, we However the reflection of light caused
analyze and compare three types of by the bent corner generates the
L-shaped bent photonic crystal undesired optical power loss. Moreover,
waveguides, including an abrupt the exact range of the band gap may
right-angle bend, an L-shaped bend with deviate because of the lattice defects. If
a 45° mirror, and an L-shaped bend with so, the wavelength selected by us may
a 45° transitional section. And we be beyond the range of the realistic band
investigate their respective transmissions gap. And hence the confinement of
and the wavelength responses. lightwave in the wide-angle bent PCWG
1 Introduction will degrade. For these reasons, an
appropriate design of the bent
A photonic crystal is a periodical waveguide pattern for reducing the
structure and it can be utilized in many power loss is necessary.
optoelectronic applications. Its period is Conventional tools for analyzing the
as same as the order of the optical two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystal
wavelength. Several important and are the plane-wave expansion method
interesting characteristics of the and the finite-difference time-domain
photonic crystal have been investigated. (FDTD) method. The former is
A photonic crystal waveguide (PCWG) commonly employed to obtain the band
is composed of linear vacancies structure diagram of the perfect photonic
(defects). These vacancies can trap crystal, and the latter is often utilized to
photons, resulting to that it is impossible simulate the propagation of lightwave in
for light to escape into the bulk crystal. the PCWG. In this study, we employ
Therefore, the PCWG has the better these methods to investigate the optical
optical confinement than conventional performances of three different types of
waveguides based on internal reflections L-shaped bent photonic crystal
of lights. And up to now, many PCWG waveguides. And we study their
devices including the wide-angle bent respective optical transmissions and
channel waveguides, the wide-angle other relative characteristics.
Y-branches, the T-junctions, and the
Mach-Zehnder interferometers, the have 2 Description of three L-shaped bent
been implemented [1-6]. Ideally, the photonic crystal waveguides
Consider a 2-D photonic crystal
comprising circular dielectric pillars in
air on a square array. The lattice constant
of the photonic crystal is a and the
radius of the pillar is Rc. After
determining the expected propagation
path of light, the channel waveguide can
be created by omitting two rows of
pillars. Figure 1(a) shows a simple type
of L-shaped bent PCWG [Type (I)]. It
has an abrupt right angle. And we depict Figure 1 (b)
the both boundaries of the channel guide
in solid lines. Figure 1(b) is a modified
type [Type (II)], which an additional
pillar was placed in the left corner of the
L-shaped bent channel region. The
topology is like a 45° mirror as depicted
as in solid lines. Figure 1(c) presents
another modified type [Type (III)]. A
pillar was added in the left corner but
another pillar was removed in the right
corner of the channel guide. Its topology
Figure 1 (c)
is similar to a 45° transitional section as
3 Simulation results
shown in solid lines. In design of the
L-shaped bent PCWG, adding or
Figure 2 is the band structure diagram of
removing some pillars in the corners is
the 2-D square-lattice photonic crystal
common for obtaining better optical
obtained by the plane-wave expansion
transmission characteristics [1, 4]. In our
method. In our simulation, the lattice
simulation cases, only the fewest pillars
were added or removed for simplicity. constant is a= 1µm . The radius and the
refractive index of the pillar are
Rc=0.45 µm and 3.16227766,
respectively. It is obvious that there
exists the only one band gap for the TE
mode in Fig. 2. The band gap in
wavelength, is between 0.907µm and
1.066µm.

Figure 1 (a)

Figure 2
For studying the transmission Figure 3 (b)
characteristics of the three L-shaped bent The guidance of the L-shaped bend may
PCWG, firstly, we select a certain vary with the different types of L-shaped
operating wavelength within the band bends and the distinct wavelengths. We
gap, say λ=1µm, for simulation. And we scan the wavelength from 0.90µm to
choose a Gaussian beam of which half 1.70µm by the increment △λ=0.05µm
e-1-width is 4µm as the input light. to simulate the propagations of TE-mode
Figure 3 presents the intensity contour lights. Observing the band structure
of the each electromagnetic field diagram in Fig. 2, λ=1.40µm
component as the light propagates along corresponding to the normalized
the above three L-shaped bent photonic frequency ωa/2πc=a/λ ≅ 0.7, there are
crystal waveguides. The TE-mode case many ω-k curves nearly across it. And
is shown in Fig. 3(a) and the TM-mode hence the light of λ=1.40µm can escape
case is shown in Fig. 3(b). It is found into the bulk crystal region easily, so the
that the optical confinements in these guidance of the photonic crystal
bent corners are not so good in waveguide is the worst among our
agreement with common expectations. simulation cases. We observe that the
Most people think that the light, of major bandwidth of good transmission is
wavelength within the band gap, is between 1.50µm and 1.65µm. This
forbidden from entering into the bandwidth of good transmission is
adjacent bulk region of the bent corner. beyond the band gap of the perfect
The power loss in the bent region should photonic crystal. Table 1 lists the
be negligible. However, owing to the transmission efficiency (Po/Pi) along the
strong optical reflection by the bent three types of L-shaped bends in the
corner and the deviation of the band gap, major bandwidth. It shows the
the light is hardly guided along the transmission efficiencies along Type (II)
90-degree bent PCWG at this operating and Type (III) L-shaped bends are
wavelength. obviously superior to that of Type (I)
bend, because the corner-reflection of
lights have been reduced in case of
existence of the 45° mirror or the 45°
transitional section.
Operating Transmission Transmission Transmission
wavelength efficiency efficiency efficiency
in µm along Type along Type along Type
(I) bend (II) bend (III) bend

1.50 0.3580 0.4208 0.3773


1.55 0.2271 0.3729 0.3702
1.60 0.1240 0.4379 0.3869
Figure 3 (a)
1.65 0.1290 0.1804 0.1807
Table 1 Transmission efficiency (Po/Pi)
along three types of L-shaped bends

4 Conclusions

Some conclusions are drawn in the


above simulation as follows.
1. At the operating wavelength within
the band gap of the perfect photonic
crystal, the optical guidance of the
90-degree bent PCWG may be not obtained utilizing topology
very good because the power loss optimization,” Optics Express, vol. 12,
caused by the bent corners can not 5916-5921, 2004.
be negligible. Owing to the optical [4] K. Rauscher, D. Erni, J. Smajic, Ch.
reflection by the bent corner, the Hafner, “Improved transmission for
power loss may be generated. 60°photonic crystal waveguide bends,”
Furthermore, due to the deviation of Progress in Electromagnetic Research
the band gap, the operating Symposium 2004, 25-28.
wavelength may be no more within [5] M. H. Shih, W. J. Kim, J. R. Cao, H.
the band gap of the lattice-defect Yukawa, S. J. Choi, J. D. O’Brien, P. D.
crystal. And hence the light is hardly Dapkus, and W. K. Marshall,
guided along the L-shaped bent “Two-dimensional photonic crystal
PCWG. Mach-Zehnder interferometers,” Appl.
2. At a certain operating wavelength, Phys. Lett., vol. 84, 2004, 460-462.
the input light may excite large [6] C. –Y. Liu and L. –W. Chen,
radiation modes at the beginning of “Tunable photonic-crystal waveguide
the straight section of PCWG, such Mach-Zehnder interferometer achieved
that very little optical power arrives by nematic liquid-crystal phase
at the bent corner. This wavelength, modulation,” Optics Express, vol. 12,
corresponding to the specific 2004, 2616-2624.
normalized frequency, there are
many ω-k curves nearly converging
to it. And hence the light can escape
into the bulk crystal region easily, so
the guidance of the photonic crystal
bent waveguide becomes worse.
3. There exists a major bandwidth of
good transmission other than the
band gap of the perfect photonic
crystal. Within the bandwidth of
good transmission, the transmission
efficiencies along Type (II) and Type
(III) L-shaped bent PCWGs are
better than that of Type (I) bend.

References
[1] Y. Naka and H. Ikuno,
“Two-dimensional photonic crystal
L-shaped bent waveguide and its
application to wavelength
multi/demultiplexer,” Turk J. Elec.
Engin., vol. 10, 245-256, 2002.
[2] N. Fukaya, D. Ohsaki, and T. Baba,
“Two-dimensional photonic crystal
waveguides with 60° bends in a thin slab
structure,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 39,
2619-2623, 2000.
[3] L. H. Frandsen, A. Harpose, P. I.
Borel, M. Kristensen, “Broad photonic
crystal waveguides with 60° bend

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