Design of tunable transmission filter using one-dimensional defective photonic crystal structure containing electro-optic material

A narrowband tunable transmission filter suitable for wavelength division multiplexing is designed. The basic structure is a one-dimensional Fabry–Perot structure formed by layers of dielectric magnesium fluoride and electro-optic lithium niobate, which act as low and high refractive index material layers, respectively. A narrowband phase shifted transmission peak occurs within the stopband of the reflectance spectra of the structure by introducing the defect of a low-index material at a suitable position in the structure. The bandwidth of the peak depends on the number of bilayers and also on the operating wavelength. The phase shift of the transmission peak is linearly related to the wavelength under consideration. By adjusting the defect layer width, this shift of the transmission peak from the operating wavelength can be avoided. The device dimensions are so chosen that such a structure can be fabricated and used with presently available technology. A linear transmission peak tunability of 4  nm/10  V is achieved for this device by varying the refractive index of the electro-optic lithium niobate layer with externally applied voltage along its z axis. All the simulations have been carried out using the finite difference time domain method in a MATLAB® environment.