Photonic crystal waveguide arrays

Abstract

We carry out the study of two-dimensional photonic-crystal waveguide arrays (PCWA) composed of N waveguides coupled evanescently with each other. The coupling properties of the waveguide modes are investigated using coupledmode theory. One straightforward application of such an analysis is to channel input power from a central waveguide to side waveguides. As a result, the appropriate designs of PCWAs may permit the realization of efficient, compact and novel power dividers. For instance, we show that power dividers, switchers, and Mach-Zehnder interferometers can be feasible using N=3 channels. On the other hand, N=5 waveguides can split the input power by 1/4 at a certain length.