Three-output-channel photonic crystal splitter and switch based on nonlinear resonators and the self-collimation...

Based on the nonlinear resonators and self-collimation characteristics of light beams, we designed an all-optical photonic crystal beam splitter and switch. The proposed device consists of an input waveguide and three output waveguides connected to different ring resonators. Three pump beams transmit through different resonators via the self-collimation effect, and eight output states are realized by altering the intensity of the pump light. The proposed device works at the wavelength of 1629.57 nm, and the pump wavelength is located at 1240.00 nm. The transmittance contrast between the "on" and "off" states reached a maximum value of 124.0 and a minimum of 17.6. The minimal pump light intensity required to implement the performance is only ${0.162}\,\,{\rm W/}\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}^2$0.162W/µm², while the maximal value is about ${0.497}\,\,{\rm W/}\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}^2$0.497W/µm². Due to the small size of our proposed device and also its insensitivity to the pump light beams' incident location and spatial width within a certain degree, it has great potential application value in all-optical communications.