Optica Applicata, Vol. XL, No.
4, 2010
Simulation and design of a wideband
T-shaped photonic crystal splitter
SHAGHAYEGH FOGHANI, HASSAN KAATUZIAN, MOHAMMAD DANAIE *
Photonics Research Laboratory (P.R.L.), Department of Electrical Engineering,
Amirkabir University of Technology, Hafez Ave., Tehran, Iran
*
In this paper, a high efficiency 2-D T-shaped photonic crystal beam splitter is proposed. It consists
of a square lattice of GaAs rods (n = 3.4) embedded in air. The photonic crystal structure
proposed can be used for 1550 nm wavelength, which is an important wavelength for optical
fiber data transmission. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation results demonstrate
that a conventional T-junction can only provide 78% transmission coefficient (39% for each
branch) for the incident light, while the proposed T-shaped splitter transmits over 90% of
the incident light beam (over 45% from each branch) in the single mode region of waveguide.
Especially it transmits nearly 98% (49% from each branch) of the input light in the wavelength of
1550 nm. In other words, the proposed devise shows higher beam splitting efficiency and a wider
range of flatness of transmission power spectrum in comparison with previous works.
Keywords: photonic crystal, photonic band gap, beam splitter, T-junction, finite difference time
domain (FDTD).
1. Introduction
During the last two decades many efforts have been made in order to gradually
replace electronic integrated circuits with their optical counterparts. Minimizing
the dimensions of electronic devices causes unwanted electronic signal interference,
noise and cross-talks. So, that bottleneck and scale limitations in classical IC design
become more critical. On the other hand, the improvement in semiconductor
technology has brought about the possibility of optical devices playing the same role
as electronic devices do in human life. In optical devices choosing an appropriate
medium for light propagation will minimize the power loss. Photonic crystals are kind
of new optical structures which provide suitable foundation for light propagation.
These structures have attracted a lot of attention both in academic and industrial areas
and they bring on the idea of the development of completely optical integrated circuits
in the near future.
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S. FOGHANI, H. KAATUZIAN, M. DANAIE
Photonic crystals (PCs) consist of two different dielectric materials which are
arranged periodically (together). In other words, the refractive index alternates
periodically in such medium. Depending on the number of dimensions in which
the periodicity exists, PCs are categorized into one, two or three dimensionally
periodic. One dimensional photonic crystals have the simplest geometry. They consist
of layers of two different dielectric materials and therefore are also called multilayer
films [1]. One of the first theoretical analyzes about one dimensional photonic crystals
was published by Lord Rayleigh in 1887. For some ranges of frequency these crystals
are able to act as a mirror; in this case they are called Bragg mirrors. Additionally, in
case of defect being introducted into PC lattice, these crystals can localize the light
modes. The unique properties of one dimensional photonic crystals make them
beneficial in fabrication of dielectric mirrors or distributed feedback optical filters
(DFB) [2]. The second photonic crystal category is the two dimensional types.
The mirror reflection symmetry in these crystals causes the modes to be classified into
two distinct polarizations, one is transverse electrical (TE) in which the electric field
vector resides in the plane of periodicity and the magnetic field vector is perpendicular
to the above mentioned plane, and the other one is transverse magnetic (TM) in which
the directions of electric and magnetic fields are the opposite of TE condition.
However, the actual properties of photonic crystals only exist in three dimensional
types. Since the fabrication and analysis of these structures are difficult, therefore
usually two dimensional photonic crystals are discussed. In fact, the two dimensional
photonic crystals have most of the three dimensional PC properties in addition to
simplicity of their fabrication. Thus, in this article, we also focus our attention on two
dimensional category of photonic crystals.
The most remarkable specification of photonic crystals is their photonic band gap,
which means that light with certain range of frequencies is not permitted to propagate
inside the crystal. Many applications of photonic crystals specially two and three
dimensional types depend on the location and width of their band gap. For instance,
a crystal with a band gap can act as a narrow band filter, omitting all frequencies inside
the gap or it can be utilized as a reflecting wall forming a resonant cavity for modes
inside the gap. It is notable that the more the dielectric constant differs in photonic
crystals the larger the band gap is [3].
Two dimensional photonic crystals have two basic topologies. The first one contains
a dielectric substrate in which air holes are introduced periodically. The second one
consists of dielectric rods embedded in air. Usually, the former topology has band gap
for TE modes and the latter provides gaps for TM modes [4]. The distance between
two adjacent holes or rods is called the lattice constant.
A pure photonic crystal inhibits light with frequencies in the range of band gap to
propagate through the lattice. However, by introducing defects in crystal lattice various
photonic devices can be created. For instance, by introducting a point defect in crystal,
i.e., eliminating a single hole or rod, a mode with frequency inside the band gap can
be localized and as a result a cavity with high quality factor will be formed [1].
Removing a row of rods or holes in PC results in the formation of a linear defect which
Simulation and design of a wideband T-shaped photonic crystal splitter
865
is utilized for creation of waveguides. The most important advantage of PC waveguides
in comparison with the conventional ones is that the modes are able to propagate even
through sharp 90 degree bends [5, 6]. Another beneficial property of these waveguides
is that they can possess branches splitting the input incident light power into two output
waveguides and forming power splitters which are utilized in many applications such
as Mach Zehnder interferometers [7]. This article mainly focuses on photonic crystal
power splitters and the configurations which may improve the efficiency of these
devices.
Photonic crystal power splitters with different configurations have been studied in
the literature. In [8], a T-junction splitter is proposed which transmits only 45% of
incident light at the wavelength of 1550 nm. A T-splitter design is also investigated
in [9]. The transmission in the spectral range mentioned is not very flat for
the structure in [9].
In this article, we intend to propose a topology with more efficient beam splitting
and a wider range flatness of transmission power spectrum. Since this splitter consists
of dielectric rods embedded in air, it is suitable for light with TM polarization.
The splitter for TE polarized light was studied in our previous works [10]. In [10]
a Y-branch is proposed which efficiently divides the propagated TE polarized light
into two output ports. It is shown that by introducing three additional holes and
increasing the radius of another hole the transmission bandwidth can be improved
significantly. In comparison to previous topologies this topology is very simple yet it
provides a transmission bandwidth equal to 92%.
In Section 2, we will review the numerical methods for analyzing photonic crystals.
Specially, we describe plane wave expansion (PWE) and finite difference time
domain (FDTD) methods in some detail. We mainly utilize these two methods in our
analysis. The T-shaped design proposed to obtain more efficient beam splitter will
be explained in Section 3, and the band structure for the so-called lattice will also be
calculated.
2. Numerical analysis
There are various methods for analyzing and designing a PC, including plane wave
expansion (PWE) method, scattering matrix method, finite difference time domain
(FDTD) method and finite element method. The PWE method provides a contour map
of frequencies called dispersion surface and is used to calculate energy bands. FDTD
method is suitable for the analysis and design of the actual photonic crystals. Moreover,
it is possible to analyze the time dependence of the optical pulse that propagates
through a waveguide. As photonic bands can be calculated with a periodic boundary
condition the FDTD method is considered to be one of the principal methods for
analyzing photonic crystals along with the PWE method [12]. In this paper, we use
PWE method to calculate the band structure of the crystal and then using FDTD method
we analyze the transmission spectrum of the T-splitter. Here, we briefly describe PWE
method.
866
S. FOGHANI, H. KAATUZIAN, M. DANAIE
2.1. The PWE method
The propagation of light in a photonic crystal is governed by four Maxwell equations.
Consider an isotropic medium in which there are no sources of light so that and J
are equal to zero in Maxwell equations. Also assume that the dielectric constant has
no frequency dependence. Finally, consider that the material is transparent so that (r)
is purely real and positive. With these considerations the four Maxwell equations will
be in the following form:
H ( r, t ) = 0
( r ) E ( r, t )
= 0
(1)
H ( r, t )
E ( r, t ) + 0 -------------------------- = 0
t
E ( r, t )
H ( r, t ) 0 ( r ) ------------------------- = 0
t
Assuming H(r, t) and E (r, t ) to be in the form of complex values as in Eq. (2) and
substituting them into Eq. (1) we will finally obtain Eq. (3). Therefore, H(r) and its
corresponding frequencies can be found as follows:
H ( r, t ) = H ( r )e
i t
E ( r, t ) = E ( r )e
1
--------------- H ( r )
(r)
i t
(2)
= --------- H ( r )
c
2
(3)
According to Blochs theorem the modes in a periodic structure can be written as:
H(r) = e
kr
h ( r) e k
(4)
h ( r ) = h ( r + Rl )
where Rl is an arbitrary lattice vector and ek is the unit vector perpendicular to
the vector k and parallel to H. Since and h are periodic functions we can write them
as their Fourier expansion:
(r) =
( Gi ) e
iG r
Gi
h(r) =
h ( Gi ) e
Gi
iG r
1
--------------- =
(r)
( Gi ) e
iG r
(5)
Gi
(6)
Simulation and design of a wideband T-shaped photonic crystal splitter
867
Therefore H will be written as:
H(r) =
hG, e e
i ( k + G )r
(7)
G,
As Equation (7) demonstrates, H is written as the sum of plane waves, where = 1,
2, ...; k is the wave vector of the plane wave, G is the reciprocal lattice vector, e
represents the two unit axis perpendicular to the propagation direction (k + G);
(e1, e2, k + G) are perpendicular to each other; hG, is the coefficient of the H
component along the axes e.
Finally, substituting (5) and (7) in to (3) yields:
k + G k + G' ( G G' )
G'
e 2 e'2
e 2 e'1
h 1, G'
e 1 e'2
e 1 e'1
h 2, G'
2
h 1, G
= ----------2
c
h 2, G
(8)
This is a matrix showing the relation between and k. This equation is a standard
eigenvalue problem and it can be solved using numerical methods. The number of
plane waves required to achieve adequate accuracy depends on structural details of
the unit cell. When high accuracy is required for higher frequency ranges or when
the atom structure is complicated, the number of plane waves should be increased [13].
3. The proposed beam splitter design
In our previous work [10, 11], we used a structure with a triangular lattice of air holes
embedded in GaAs slab. As we have mentioned before, it is the most popular structure
for TE polarization. We choose the radius of holes to be 0.3a, where a is the lattice
constant. Figure 1 shows our Y-branch topology proposed as well as its transmission
power spectrum for the TE polarized incident light.
The input and output powers are usually measured using Poynting vector method,
which is defined as follows:
S(r, t ) = E(r, t ) H(r, t )*
(9)
where E and H are the electric and magnetic fields and r is the space coordinate. If
the vector S is numerically calculated over a surface, the real section of the complex
Poynting vector, i.e., Re (S(t )), determines the flow of energy through the surface as
a function of time. Using discrete-time Fourier transform (DFT), the time-domain data
can be mapped into the frequency domain to determine the spectrum of the power flow.
In order to do so a sinusoidal pulse with a Gaussian envelope is used as input excitation.
This pulse propagates through the waveguide, reaches the end of the waveguide and
vanishes in the PML boundary condition section. The real section of the Poynting
vector S(t ) is calculated somewhere across the waveguide. The ratio of output Fourier
868
S. FOGHANI, H. KAATUZIAN, M. DANAIE
1.0
Normalized power spectrum
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
Incident power
0.5
Transmitted power
0.4
0.3
Single mode region
0.2
0.1
0
0.25
0.26
0.27
0.28
0.29
0.3
Frequency (a/)
Fig. 1. Y-branch topology for TE polarized incident light and its corresponding transmission
spectrum [10].
transform to the Fourier transform of the input pulse can determine the transmission
power spectrum.
In designing beam splitters for integrated circuits the most important key factor is
the quality of optical bend and junctions. High transmission coefficients and low
reflection and loss factors are very critical in this case. A PC bend can be obtained by
introducing line defects in crystal. In [14, 15], a waveguide bend design is proposed
which is a two dimensional square lattice of rods with refractive index of 3.4 embedded
in air. GaAs has a refractive index of 3.4 at the wavelength of 1550 nm. This
wavelength is one of the most important wavelengths in photonics, since the absorption
of light in conventional optical fibers is the least at this wavelength and therefore it is
useful for optical fiber data transmission. This article mentions that using rods with
radius of 0.18a (where a is the lattice constant) in the crystal structure results in
the transmission of light to be more than 90% and the reflection to be only about 8%.
Therefore, we may also use this ratio for the radius of rod in our splitter.
Figure 2 demonstrates the 2D PC lattice used for designing the splitter. The circles
represent the GaAs rods, whose radii are 0.18a. Using PWE method, the band structure
TM modes of the lattice in Fig. 2 is calculated and demonstrated in Fig. 3. As it is
illustrated, this lattice provides a wide band gap for TM modes in range of a/ ratios
between 0.3 to 0.44.
Since we are interested in transmitting and splitting light with wavelengths of about
1550 nm, we choose the lattice constant to be a = 644.8 nm. Therefore, the a/ ratio
for = 1550 nm would be 0.416 and it resides within the gap. As the radius of rods r
is related to a by r = 0.18a its value would be 116.06 nm. An ideal splitter should
divide the incident light beam into two distinct sections with 50% of the incident
power travelling in each direction (100% transmission) and zero reflection for all
the frequency range of the corresponding waveguide [10].
Simulation and design of a wideband T-shaped photonic crystal splitter
869
Fig. 2. Schematic of 2D PC with square lattice of GaAs rods in
air.
TE band structure
Frequency (a/2c = a/)
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Fig. 3. Band structure for a PC comprising a square lattice of GaAs rods with radius equal to 0.18a which
are embedded in air.
The simplest geometry which can be used as a T-junction is shown in Fig. 4.
FDTD simulation results show that the junction depicted in Fig. 4 can only provide
78% transmission (39% for each branch) for the incident light beam and the rest of
the light is reflected. Therefore, this simple T-junction may not be suitable enough for
efficient integrated optics applications.
The structure proposed in this article is depicted in Fig. 5. In comparison with
the simple T-junction (Fig. 4) the radius of rods in the vicinity of the input waveguide
is reduced gradually from left to right. An optimization method is used for determining
the radius of the rods. The method mentioned takes the radius of the rods as input
variables and calculates the bandwidth for each structure. The bandwidth is considered
to be the region where the transmission coefficient exceeds 0.9 (0.45 for each output
port).
The optimization algorithm for this particular problem acts as follows: first,
an initial value for each of the variables is guessed. It can be either based on previous
observations or the designer insight. Each of the variables is in turn swept in its
permissible range while the others are kept constant. The bandwidth is calculated for
870
S. FOGHANI, H. KAATUZIAN, M. DANAIE
Fig. 4. A simple T-junction.
d
c b a a
d
Fig. 5. The proposed T-shaped photonic crystal topology for
TM polarized incident light.
each of these states to determine the optimum value for the variable (which maximizes
the bandwidth). After the optimum value is chosen for the first variable, this process
is repeated for the next one. After a couple of iterations an optimum result will be
obtained. The radius of rods labeled a in Fig. 5 is 50 nm, the radius of the rods
labeled b is 78 nm and the rods labeled c have the radius of 92 nm. Two additional
rods with radius of 50 nm are introduced to the structure; one at the beginning of each
branch at the T-junction. In addition, the radius of two rods labeled d is increased to
145 nm. This modification of the radius of rods ensures the least reflection of incident
light back into the input port.
The splitter can be considered to be comprised of three waveguides and a junction
section. The quality of transmission depends on the strength of coupling between
the waveguides and the junction section. A fine modeling method has been proposed
in [16] which can provide a physical insight on how to improve the transmission
efficiency. In a typical photonic crystal waveguide obtained by removing a column of
rods in a square lattice of dielectric cylinders, introduction of additional rods in
the waveguides results in the reduction of group velocity of the propagation mode.
Simulation results show that adding extra rods in the junction section can enhance
the coupling strength. The radius of these rods is determined from the optimization
process.
Simulation and design of a wideband T-shaped photonic crystal splitter
871
1.0
Transmission ratio
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1.50
1.54
1.58
1.62
1.66
1.70
Wavelength [m]
Fig. 6. Transmission power spectrum for the T-splitter proposed.
Figure 6 shows the transmission power spectrum of the T-splitter proposed.
The transmission ratio for each branch in the wavelength region from 1530 to 1685 nm
is not less than 45%. Especially this splitter transmits nearly 98% (49% from each
branch) of the input light in the wavelength of 1550 nm.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, we proposed an improved T-junction beam splitter for TM polarizations.
It was shown that by gradually reducing the radius of rods near the junction and
introducing two additional rods into the junction the transmission ratio of the incident
light will be more than 45% for wavelengths of 1530 to 1685 nm. Especially this beam
splitter provides nearly 50% splitting for the most functional wavelength of 1550 nm.
Also the light reflection of this structure in the aforementioned wavelength range is
not above 8%. In comparison with previous works this structure shows more efficient
beam splitting and a wider range of flatness of transmission power spectrum.
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Received December 21, 2009
in revised form March 17, 2010
