Experimental Demonstration of Guiding and Bending of Electromagnetic Waves in a Photonic Crystal
Shawn-Yu Lin,
*
Edmund Chow,
Vince Hietala,
Pierre R. Villeneuve,
J. D. Joannopoulos
The routing and interconnection of optical signals through narrow
channels and around sharp corners are important for large-scale all-optical circuit applications. A recent computational result suggests that photonic crystals may offer a novel way of achieving this
goal by providing a mechanism for guiding light that is fundamentally different from traditional index guiding. Waveguiding in a photonic crystal and near 100 percent transmission of electromagnetic waves around sharp 90 degree corners were observed experimentally. Bending radii were made smaller than one wavelength.
S.-Y. Lin, E. Chow, V. Hietala, Sandia National Laboratories, Post
Office Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA. P. R. Velleneuve
and J. D. Johannopoulos, Department of Physics, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: slin{at}sandia.gov
