Photonic Crystal Fabry-Perot Self-Collimation Interferometer by Liquid Crystal Infiltration

Abstract:

A Fabry-Perot self-collimation interferometer (FPSI) constructed in a two-dimensional photonic crystal (2D PhC) by liquid crystal infiltration has been proposed and demonstrated theoretically. The resonant cavity of FPSI is infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal (LC) 5CB with ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices 1.522 and 1.706, respectively. The transmission spectrum of the FPSI has been investigated with the 2D finite-difference time-domain method. Calculation results show that resonant transmission peaks have nearly equal frequency spacing 0.0090c/a. When the effective refractive index neff of the liquid crystal is increased from 1.522 to 1.706, the peaks shift to the lower frequencies over 0.0071c/a while the peak spacing is almost kept unchanged. Thus this FPSI by LC infiltration can work as a tunable attenuator or an optical switch. For the central operating wavelength around 1.55m, its dimensions are only about tens of microns. Thus this device may be applied to photonic integrated circuits.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volumes 428-429)
• Pages: 573-578
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.428-429.573
• Online since: January 2010
• Authors: Guo Zhong Lai, Xi Yao Chen, Yu Fei Wang, Hong Lin
• Keywords: Fabry-Perot Interferometer, Liquid Crystal, Photonic Crystal (PC), Self-Collimation

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