Using the Dispersive Properties of Photonic Crystals for Optical Communication

我们的目标是在这个建议是探索使用的空间和时间的色散特性的光子晶体和相关结构的光通信应用。光子晶体是一种人工微结构，其折射率在与波长相当的长度尺度上受到强烈调制。它们提供了一种操纵光的新机制。 特别是，光子晶体的几个独特特性使其成为光通信系统中新型元件的特别有趣的材料系统。该晶体具有很强的空间色散特性。这些特性已经在超棱镜效应中被利用。该晶体还具有大的时间色散效应，如大的群延迟、强色散和显著的偏振依赖性。因此，光子晶体可以在执行光通信中的一些关键功能（诸如可调谐光学延迟、动态色散补偿和减轻以及波分复用和解复用）方面具有巨大的潜力。然而，为了实现光子晶体的潜力，理解光子晶体结构如何被设计以满足光通信的严格要求是至关重要的。例如，高比特率应用的基本挑战是以足以覆盖感兴趣的信号的足够大的带宽实现显著的色散效应。例如，对于波分复用，重要的是在感兴趣的波长范围内提供足够低的色散常数。了解如何去设计这样的结构将需要更深入地了解器件的原理，可以给这样的行为，因此，我们建议进行一个项目，将系统地研究一些基本的色散特性的光子晶体和相关的结构，在光通信应用的背景下。拟议的活动将是理论性和计算性的。然而，这里的一个关键目标是设计出实验上可行的新颖的功能结构，并回答与实验直接相关和重要的问题。在这样做的过程中，我们寻求直接影响广泛的实验工作，这些工作已经在光子晶体技术的这一新兴领域进行。

Our objective in this proposal is to explore the use of the spatial and temporal dispersion characteristics of photonic crystals and related structures for optical communication applications. Photonic crystals are artificial microstructures where the index of refraction is strongly modulated at a length scale comparable to the wavelength. They provide a new mechanism for the manipulation of light. In particular, several unique characteristics of photonic crystals make them a particularly intriguing material system for novel components in optical communication systems. The crystals exhibit strong spatial dispersion characteristics. These characteristics have been exploited in the super-prism effect. The crystals also possess large temporal dispersion effects, such as large group delay, strong chromatic dispersion, and significant polarization dependency. Thus, photonic crystals may hold tremendous potential in performing some of the critical functionality in optical communications, such as tunable optical delay, dynamic dispersion compensation and mitigation, and wavelength division multiplexing and demultiplexing. To realize the potentials of photonic crystals, however, it is critically important to understand how photonic crystal structures can be engineered to meet the stringent requirements of optical communications. For example, a fundamental challenge for high bit rate applications is to achieve significant dispersive effects with a large enough bandwidth that is sufficient to cover the signal of interest. For wavelength division multiplexing, for example, it is important to provide sufficiently low dispersion constant over the wavelength range of interest. Understanding how to go about designing such structures will require a deeper understanding of device principles that could give such behaviors.We therefore propose to undertake a project that will systematically examine some of the fundamental dispersive properties of photonic crystals and related structures, in the context of optical communication applications. The proposed activities will be theoretical and computational in their nature. A key objective here, however, is to produce designs of novel and functional structures that are experimentally feasible, and to answer questions that are of immediate experimental relevance and importance. In doing so we seek to directly impact wide ranges of experimental efforts that are already ongoing in this emerging area of photonic crystal technology.