Modal conversion with artificial materials for photonic-crystal waveguides

Philippe Lalanne (1) , Anne Talneau (2)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Naphel
2 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures

We study adiabatic mode transformations in photonic-crystal integrated circuits composed of a triangular lattice of holes etched into a planar waveguide. The taper relies on the manufacture of holes with progressively-varying dimensions. The variation synthesizes an artificial material with a gradient effective index. Calculations performed with a three-dimensional exact electromagnetic theory yield high transmission over a wide frequency range. To evidence the practical interest of the approach, a mode transformer with a length as small as λ/2 is shown to provide a spectral-averaged transmission efficiency of 92% for tapering between a ridge waveguide and a photonic crystal waveguide with a one-row defect.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Philippe Lalanne, Anne Talneau. Modal conversion with artificial materials for photonic-crystal waveguides. Optics Express, 2002, 10 (8), pp.354-359. ⟨10.1364/OE.10.000354⟩. ⟨hal-00874200⟩