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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Tunable photonic crystals enable new optical physics and devices

Shanhui Fan, Mehmet Fatih Yanik, Won Joo Suh

Published Oct 14, 2004• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show that tunable photonic band gap materials offer new opportunities for device applications. Optical switches or sensors that are far more compact and sensitive, for instance, can be constructed when we introduce either optical or mechanical tunability into photonic crystal structures. Furthermore, when we tune the photonic crystal while a photon is inside the crystal, the crystal can exhibit qualitatively different optical physics effects. As a particularly exciting example, we show that light can in fact be completely stopped in a tunable photonic crystal, and the conventional delay bandwidth product limit in resonator optics can be completely overcome.

DOI
10.1117/12.558584

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We show that tunable photonic band gap materials offer new opportunities for device applications. Optical switches or sensors that are far more compact and sensitive, for instance, can be constructed when we introduce either optical or mechanical tunability into photonic crystal structures. Furthermore, when we tune the photonic crystal while a photon is inside the crystal, the crystal can exhibit qualitatively different optical physics effects. As a particularly exciting example, we show that light can in fact be completely stopped in a tunable photonic crystal, and the conventional delay bandwidth product limit in resonator optics can be completely overcome.
Photonic crystals (PCs) are periodic systems that consist of dielectrics with different refractive indices. Photonic crystals have many potential technological applications. These applications are mainly based on the photonic bang gap effect. However the band gap is not only effect that follows from the periodic changing of the refractive index in the photonic crystal. The periodic change of the photon-matter interaction in photonic crystal medium gives rise to the fact that the mass of an electron in the photonic crystal must differ from its mass in vacuum. Anisotropy of a photonic crystal results in the dependence of the electromagnetic mass correction on the orientation of the electron momentum in a photonic crystal. This orientation dependence in turn gives rise to the significant correction to the transition frequencies in an atom placed in air voids of a photonic crystal. These corrections are shown to be comparable to the atomic optical frequencies. This effect allows one to control the structure of the atomic energy levels and hence to control resonance processes. It can serve as the basis for new line spectrum sources. The effect provides new ways of realization of quantum interference between decay channels that can be important for quantum information science.
We illustrate a mechanism based on coherent optical nonlinearities to realize optically tunable photonic crystals built from media supporting electromagnetically induced transparency. These exhibit specific periodic patterns where a light probe can experience a fully developed photonic band-gap with negligible absorption. An analytical method based on a two-mode approximation is developed to study the optical response of such a periodically modulated medium driven into a regime of standing-wave electromagnetically induced transparency. A comparison with a transfer matrix approach and with techniques based on the coupled Maxwell–Liouville equations shows that our method is very accurate to describe the optical properties of such photonic metamaterials in the frequency region of interest. Nearly perfect reflectivities may be attained for ultracold 87Rb atoms samples which are seen to reflect with little loss and deformation light pulses whose frequency components are contained within the gap. When the same mechanism is implemented for inhomogeneously broadened optical transitions of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, which is more amenable to device applications, fully developed photonic band-gap structures with negligible absorption, reflectivities very close to unity and sufficiently large bandwidths may also be attained. We further examine more flexible schemes based on four level systems under double driving conditions showing more accurate and efficient coherent optical control of the photonic band-gap. The remarkable experimental simplicity of the schemes that we presented is set to ease quantum nonlinear optics applications.
In this paper we review our recent works in developing photonic crystals and nanophotonic structures for the control of light. We show that dynamic crystal structures, in which the refractive index of the material is modulated by a small extent while a photon pulse is in the crystal, can be used to stop, store and even time-reverse light pulses [ 1][ 2][ 3]. We also show that by incorporating magneto-optical effects into the crystal structures, the reciprocity of light can be broken, resulting in uni-directional devices that are extremely compact [ 4]. And finally, by exploiting sub-wavelength electromagnetic resonances in meta structures, new meta-materials can be created. These materials feature frequency-independent refractive index that is controlled by geometry and can be arbitrarily large [ 5]. Such materials can be of importance for integrated optics and image sensing applications.
Photonic crystals are optical materials that have an intricate structure with length scales of the order of the wavelength of light. The flow of photons is controlled in a manner analogous to how electrons propagate through semiconductor crystals, i.e., by Bragg diffraction and the formation of band structures. If the interaction between light and matter is made strong, multiple diffraction and multiple scattering effects dominate. A main research goal is the realization of a "photonic band gap", that is, a frequency range for which no light can propagate in a crystal in any direction, which causes radical modifications of the density of radiative states. Important consequences of photonic band gaps are the complete control over spontaneous and stimulated emission of light, as well as over the propagation of light, in particular photon localization. This opens up the possibility to achieve a "cage for light": trap photons and do with them whatever one chooses. In this talk we will also review means for making such structures, and recent experimental advances in optical experiments.
Summary form only given. Photonic band gap (PBG) materials are a new class of dielectrics which represent a major new frontier in quantum, nonlinear, and classical optics. They also represent a new technology platform for the optical networking industry. Unlike semiconductors which facilitate the coherent propagation of electrons, PBG materials execute their novel functions through the coherent localization of photons. When a PBG material is doped with impurity atoms (or other two-level systems) which have an electronic transition that lies within the gap, spontaneous emission of light from the atom is inhibited. Instead, the photon forms a bound state to the atom. This has dramatic consequences for collective light emission from a large number of atoms and for the interaction of such atoms with an external laser field. I describe the design of an all optical micro-transistor based on collective switching of two-level atoms near a photonic band edge, by an external laser field. I discuss tunable PBG materials whose band structure can be modulated by means of an external field. This effect enables the steering of light in a manner similar to the steering of electrons by an electric field in a semiconductor.
Inhomogeneously broadened doped solids supporting electromagnetically induced transparency are viable materials where optically tunable photonic band gaps may be observed and results are shown for Pr:YSO and nitrogen-vacancy color center materials. Such crystals, when coherently driven by a strong pump beam in a suitably designed standing wave configuration, exhibit a tunable stop-band with rather different values of the reflectivity. The different propagating behavior is investigated and characterized for a weak probe across the gap region of the two materials.