Waveguiding at 1550 nm using photonic crystal structures in silicon on insulator wafers

Design, fabrication and light guiding in planar photonic crystal structures including sharp corners with a bending radius less than 1 micron are demonstrated at 1550 nm wavelength in silicon waveguides on silicon dioxide substrates. Photon confinement in the sample plane was achieved by a photonic crystal structure while confinement in the vertical direction was achieved by index of refraction contrast.