Slow light based waveguides with nanopillar cavities for photonic switching applications

Optical switching is one of the important functions required for optical signal processing, optical networks and modern telecommunications for long distances. Out of the many switching mechanisms available, the directional coupler technique is widely used. The use of slow light using photonic crystals proposed in this paper can further enhance the utility of directional coupler type switching. Directional coupler optical switching is based on the dielectric waveguide. The device exhibits good switching characteristics between the two output ends. At around 1.55μm wavelength, which is the wavelength commonly used in long-haul communication systems, it is possible to design directional coupler having coupling length of 800μm. Instead of using normal dielectric waveguides, if slow light waveguide are used the size of directional coupler can be reduced up to 5μm. This is smallest optical switch used in optical communications and networks. In this paper we propose slow light generation method using photonic crystals waveguide which has direct application in directional coupler type switching.