Performance analysis of an ultra- compact power splitter based on 2D photonic crystal in the near IR range for photonic integrated circuits

In the present era due to miniaturization and integration of optoelectronic devices, it becomes important to design ultra-compact optical devices suitable for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In this paper, new structure of a 2D photonic crystal-based Y-junction power splitter for TE polarization is proposed (wavelength of 1430 nm and size 10 × 10 µm2). Air holes are etched in the silicon substrate to form a hexagonal lattice structure for the Y- junction splitter. The optimization of the splitter is done by structural tuning at the bends and junction region. The structure is simulated by finite difference time domain (FDTD) and plane wave expansion (PWE) methods, which gives the normalized distribution of power and range of photonic bandgap (PBG), respectively. The simulated results confirm that a high transmission efficiency of 97.29% is achieved for night vision applications in the mid IR range. Moreover, the ultra-compact splitter is highly suitable for photonic integrated circuits.