Beam steering in planar-photonic crystals: from superprism to supercollimator

Author

Wu, Lijun ; Mazilu, Michael ; Krauss, Thomas F.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Phys. & Astron., Univ. of St. Andrews, UK

Volume

21

Issue

2

fYear

2003

Firstpage

561

Lastpage

566

Abstract

We utilize the anomalous dispersion of planar-photonic crystals (PhCs) near the dielectric band edge to control the wavelength-dependent propagation of light. Light beams with up to 20° divergence were collimated over a 25-nm (1285 nm to 1310 nm) bandwidth using a triangular lattice. The "superprism" phenomenon is demonstrated in the same configuration, simply by tuning the wavelength. Sources of loss are discussed. Both the plane-wave expansion calculation and finite-difference time-domain simulation match well with the experimental results. This is the first experimental demonstration of self-collimating phenomena in a PhC configuration.

Keywords

beam steering; finite difference time-domain analysis; light propagation; optical collimators; optical dispersion; optical losses; optical prisms; optical tuning; photonic crystals; 1285 to 1310 nm; angular dispersion; anomalous dispersion; beam steering; dielectric band edge; finite-difference time-domain simulation; loss sources; planar-photonic crystals; plane-wave expansion calculation; self-collimating phenomena; supercollimator; superprism; triangular lattice; wavelength tuning; wavelength-dependent light propagation control; Bandwidth; Beam steering; Crystals; Dielectrics; Finite difference methods; Lattices; Lighting control; Optical collimators; Optical propagation; Tuning;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2003.808773

Filename

1193844