Photonic-crystal slow-light enhancement of nonlinear phase sensitivity

Photonic-crystal slow-light enhancement of nonlinear phase sensitivity

We demonstrate how slow group velocities of light, which are readily achievable in photonic-crystal systems, can dramatically increase the induced phase shifts caused by small changes in the index of refraction. Such increased phase sensitivity may be used to decrease the sizes of many devices, including switches, routers, all-optical logical gates, wavelength converters, and others. At the sam...

Nonlinear light propagation in chalcogenide photonic crystal slow light waveguides.

Optical nonlinearity can be enhanced by the combination of highly nonlinear chalcogenide glass and photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs) providing strong optical confinement and slow-light effects. In a Ag-As(2)Se(3) chalcogenide PCW, the effective nonlinear parameter γeff reaches 6.3 × 10(4) W(-1)m(-1), which is 200 times larger than that in Si photonic wire waveguides. In this paper, we report t...

Nonlinear Gain Saturation in Active Slow Light Photonic Crystal Waveguides

Nonlinear enhancement in photonic crystal slow light waveguides fabricated using CMOS-compatible process.

We have studied low-dispersion slow light and its nonlinear enhancement in photonic crystal waveguides. In this work, we fabricated the waveguides using Si CMOS-compatible process. It enables us to integrate spotsize converters, which greatly simplifies the optical coupling from fibers as well as demonstration of the nonlinear enhancement. Two-photon absorption, self-phase modulation and four-w...

Slow-light photonic crystal switches and modulators

We discuss the performance of slow-light enhanced optical switches and modulators fabricated in silicon. The switch is based on photonic crystal waveguides in a directional coupler geometry, and the dispersion of the device is engineered to allow a switching length as short as 5 μm and rerouting of optical signals within 3 ps. The 3 ps switching time is demonstrated using free carriers in the s...