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Fabrication And Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides And Cavities
Published on: November 30, 2012
Reconfigurable photonic crystal waveguides created by selective liquid infiltration
A Casas Bedoya1, P Domachuk, C Grillet
1Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS), School of Physics, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia. casas@physics.usyd.edu.au
Optics Express
|May 9, 2012
Summary
Researchers created reconfigurable photonic crystal waveguides using liquid infiltration in silicon. This precise method allows for on-demand optical functionalities in photonic devices.
Area of Science:
- Photonics and optical engineering
- Materials science
Background:
- Photonic crystals offer unique light manipulation properties.
- Creating tunable or reconfigurable photonic devices remains a challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate a novel method for creating reconfigurable photonic crystal waveguides.
- To achieve precise control over waveguide formation using liquid infiltration.
Main Methods:
- Infiltration of high refractive index liquids into a 2D hexagonal silicon photonic crystal lattice.
- Utilizing single air hole infiltration for light propagation at near-infrared wavelengths.
- Controlling liquid volume via infiltration velocity for precise control.
Main Results:
- Successful creation of functional photonic crystal waveguides with high index contrast.
- Demonstrated reversibility and repeatability of the liquid infiltration process.
- Achieved single air hole level infiltration accuracy.
Conclusions:
- Liquid infiltration provides a versatile and controllable method for fabricating reconfigurable photonic devices.
- This technique enables targeted optical functionalities on a 'blank' photonic crystal platform.
- The process is promising for on-demand reconfiguration of photonic integrated circuits.
