Advances in dispersion-based silicon photonic-crystal physics, devices and fabrication

In this work we present and experimentally validate self-collimation in planar photonic crystals (PhC) as a means to achieve defect-free confinement of light in PhC devices. We demonstrate the ability to arbitrarily guide and route light by exploiting the dispersive characteristics of the photonic crystal. Propagation loss as low as 2.17 dB/mm is measured, and experimental validation of routing structures is presented.