Wavelength routers with low crosstalk using photonic crystal point defect micro-cavities

Abstract A broadband photonic crystal (PhC) waveguide crossing is proposed with low crosstalk. On the basis of the structure, two 1 × 2 PhC λ-routers are constructed by exploiting several PhC point-defect micro-cavities. By means of the interference coupling between the point-defect modes in micro-cavities, the incidence light with the resonant wavelength can be routed to the designed output port in the router. To achieve the high routing efficiency with narrow pass-band width, the micro-cavity structure is elaborately engineered to satisfy the condition of the quality factor ratio, which consists of these rods with the gradual radii. Their performances are demonstrated by the numerical results calculated by the finite difference time domain (FDTD) and the plane wave expansion (PWE) methods. Furthermore, the analysis of the 4 × 4  λ -router configuration, obtained by assembling these basic wavelength routing elements, is reported to highlight its performances with a theoretical maximum crosstalk between the ports equal to −27.23 dB.