Opt Express. 2014 May 19;22(10):12359-68. doi: 10.1364/OE.22.012359.

Photonic molecules: tailoring the coupling strength and sign.

Optics express

S Haddadi, P Hamel, G Beaudoin, I Sagnes, C Sauvan, P Lalanne, J A Levenson, A M Yacomotti

PMID: 24921354 DOI: 10.1364/OE.22.012359

Abstract

We demonstrate a large tuning of the coupling strength in Photonic Crystal molecules without changing the inter-cavity distance. The key element for the design is the "photonic barrier engineering", where the "potential barrier" is formed by the air-holes in between the two cavities. This consists in changing the hole radius of the central row in the barrier. As a result we show, both numerically and experimentally, that the wavelength splitting in two evanescently-coupled Photonic Crystal L3 cavities (three holes missing in the ΓK direction of the underlying triangular lattice) can be continuously controlled up to 5× the initial value upon ∼ 30% of hole-size modification in the barrier. Moreover, the sign of the splitting can be reversed in such a way that the fundamental mode can be either the symmetric or the anti-symmetric one without altering neither the cavity geometry nor the inter-cavity distance. Coupling sign inversion is explained in the framework of a Fabry-Perot model with underlying propagating Bloch modes in coupled W1 waveguides.

Publication Types

• Journal Article
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't