Photonic Crystal Slab Waveguides Based on Antiresonant Reflecting Optical Waveguide Structures

Abstract

A novel two-dimensional photonic crystal slab waveguide based on an antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) structure is proposed and designed. Lightwaves propagating in this waveguide are confined by antiresonance reflection vertically and the photonic band gap laterally. In order to obtain the characteristics of the ARROW-based photonic crystal waveguides, the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations are performed. With a lateral adiabatic taper, a coupling efficiency of 80.3% from a single-mode fiber to the ARROW-based photonic crystal waveguide of a single-line defect is obtained. In addition, propagation losses less than 10 dB/mm and bend losses of 0.23 and 0.39 dB/bend for the designed 60 degrees and 120 degrees bends are achieved at an operating wavelength of 1.55 mu m.