Dispersion Engineering of Photonic Crystals

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0322633PratherOptical components that permit the miniaturization of an Application Specific Optical Integrated Circuit (ASOIC) to a scale comparable to the wavelength of light represent a viable candidate for developing chip-scale optical processing devices, such as wavelength-division-multiplexed high-bandwidth optical communication links, optical filters, lenses, switches, and routers. Currently, optical processing devices tend to have a scale much larger than the wavelength of light, which prohibits their use in on-chip applications. However, recent developments in the area of nano-photonic devices has resulted in the ability to both design and fabricate these devices. As such, the focus has now turned from "if" to "how." That is to say, the question now is "how" should one go about realizing such devices and circuits. Currently there are many proposed devices, design tools, and fabrication processes. Thus, in this effort the PI will follow a consistent path through the available techniques to demonstrate high performance integrated planar photonic crystal devices. In particular, he will pursue the development of such devices that are based on engineering the dispersion property of photonic crystals. In so doing, he will demonstrate devices that exert control over propagation waves within the crystal lattice by virtue of their unique dispersion properties. To this end, the PI will begin by taking a broad view of photonic crystal devices in the sense that they are electromagnetic components that interact with optical waves on a subwavelength scale. In a general sense, such devices can be thought of as devices that contain unique electromagnetic dispersion properties. In this sense, they can be envisioned to belong to a larger class of electromagnetically dispersive structures. Such structures can consist of general periodic dielectric structures containing arbitrary two-dimensional planar periodicity. For this case, one can properly engineer a PhC that relies exclusively on the unique dispersion properties outside of the bandga. To this end, numerous useful and interesting devices can be realized, which is the emphasis of this effort.