Li Zhi-Yuan

The role of periodicity in enhanced transmission through subwavelength hole arrays

Two kinds of subwavelength hole arrays in metallic films are designed to verify the important role of the periodicity in enhanced transmission of light. The measured optical spectra show that the quasiperiodic hole arrays exhibit an enhanced transmission peak centred at 707 nm with a transmission intensity of about 20%, while no plasmon resonance peak is found for the amorphous hole arrays. When the hole diameter decreases in the quasiperiodic structure, the position of the transmission peak shifts slightly, and the transmittance drops. These phenomena indicate the important role of the long-range structural order (particularly the periodicity) in assisting the coupling of incident light wave with the surface plasmon modes of the metallic structures.

Energy Squeeze of Ultrashort Light Pulse by Kerr Nonlinear Photonic Crystals

Self-phase modulation can efficiently shape the spectrum of an optical pulse propagating along an optical material with Kerr nonlinearity. In this work we show that a one-dimensional Kerr nonlinear photonic crystal can impose anomalous spectrum modulation to a high-power ultrashort light pulse. The spectrum component at the photonic band gap edge can be one order of magnitude enhanced in addition to the ordinary spectrum broadening due to self-phase modulation. The enhancement is strictly pinned at the band gap edge by changing the sample length, the intensity or central wavelength of the incident pulse. The phenomenon is attributed to band gap induced enhancement of light-matter interaction.

An All-Optical Diode Based on Plasmonic Attenuation and Nonlinear Frequency Conversion

We present the design of an all-optical diode in a metal-dielectric structure where plasmonic attenuation and quasi-phase-matching are harnessed to greatly improve its performance. Due to the asymmetric design of the second-order nonlinear coefficient, different incident directions will ignite different plasmonic nonlinear processes, which compensate or accelerate plasmonic attenuation. As a result, a unidirectional output of plasmonic signal is achieved. This designed all-optical diode shows advantages of low power consumption, short sample length, high isolation contrast, wide acceptance of structural and initial conditions, and tunable unidirectionality, and becomes of practical interest.

Waveguide Bend of 90° in Two-Dimensional Triangular Lattice Silicon Photonic Crystal Slabs

We design and realize a 90° waveguide bend in two-dimensional triangular lattice silicon photonic crystal slabs by connecting linear waveguides along the orthogonal Γ – K and Γ – M directions. A pass band of 70 nm is realized by optimizing the geometry of the Γ – M waveguide. The connection region of the waveguide bend is optimized to improve the transmission efficiency of infrared light through the two different kinds of waveguides. The transmission efficiency of an optimized single bend is about 75% in simulation and 45% in measurement.

A Y-Branch Photonic Crystal Slab Waveguide with an Ultrashort Interport Interval

We fabricated two-dimensional photonic crystal slab Y-branch waveguides with different intervals between the two output ports and measured their light guiding characteristics. The field intensity distributions of the TE polarized wave modes are also calculated by means of a transfer matrix method. Both the theoretical and experimental results show that the minimum interval between the two output ports is about 1.4 times the transport wavelength of 1.55 μm. If the interval becomes smaller, light waves in the two branches will couple each other seriously. The result will be helpful for designs of ultracompact wave demultiplexers and all-optical integrated circuits.

Defect Modes in Multiple-Constituent One-Dimensional Photonic Crystals Examined by an Analytic Bloch-Mode Approach

Defect modes in one-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs) can be readily detected from the solution of the transmission spectra via the standard transfer-matrix method. We adopt an analytic Bloch-mode approach to examine this problem in terms of eigenmode solutions and investigate the dispersion behaviour of localized defect modes supported by a defect layer sandwiched within two symmetric semi-infinite PCs that are made from multiple constituents. The results show that the number of defect modes grows when the dielectric constant and width of the defect layer increase.

The influence of hole shape on enhancing transmission through subwavelength hole arrays

The extraordinary light transmission through a 200-nm thick gold film when passing through different subwavelength hole arrays is observed experimentally. The sample is fabricated by electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching system. A comparison between light transmissions shows that the hole shape changing from rectangular to diamond strongly affects the transmission intensity although both structures possess the same lattice constant of 600 nm. Moreover, the position of the transmission maximum undergoes a spectral red-shift of about 63 nm. Numerical simulations by using a transfer matrix method reproduce the observed transmission spectrum quite well.

Optical properties of the direct-coupled Y-branch filters by using photonic crystal slabs

We fabricated a new type of two-dimensional photonic crystal slab filter. The resonant cavities were directly put into the waveguide arms. The optical transmissions of the filters were measured and the results show that the optimized two-channel filters give good intensity distribution at the output ports of the waveguide. A minimum wavelength spacing of 5 nm of the filter outputs is realized by accurately controlling the size of the resonant cavities.

Unidirectional emissions from dielectric photonic circuits decorated with plasmonic phased antenna arrays

Thanks to resonant characteristics of metallic nanoparticles, optical waves scattered from plasmonic nanoantennae can be well tailored in both amplitude and phase. We numerically demonstrate that, by varying the lengths and the lateral positions of gold nanorods in vicinity of a silicon waveguide, unidirectional emissions with typical forward—backward contrast ratio of 15 dB and directivity of 12 dB can be acquired in a plasmonic phased antenna array with sub-wavelength device length. The properties, i.e., the emission directionality and the size compactness, can be employed to control the far-field radiation pattern from a dielectric photonic circuit. Moreover, by altering the orientations of the dielectric waveguides decorated with plasmonic phased antenna arrays, we propose wireless light transportations in a layered photonic infrastructure, which may have applications in high-density photonic integrations.

High-Q Microcavity in Two-Dimensional Diamond Photonic Crystal Thin Films Realized via a Mode Gap

We design high quality factor (Q) photonic crystal microcavities in diamond films for applications in quantum information based on color centers. A photonic microcavity made from a waveguide heterostructure with a mode gap is demonstrated to have a high Q factor over 1051400 and a modal volume V of 2.24 cubic wavelengths by modifying the mode gap width and the tapered region geometry. Besides its ultrahigh Q factor, the waveguide-like geometry of the cavity allows for easy on-chip transportation of quantum information between different cavities.