Miniaturized on-chip optical isolators are highly desirable for advanced optical telecommunications to eliminate noise and protect the laser source. This talk will discuss the fabrication and testing of on-chip photonic crystals in ferrite waveguides. Photonic band gap engineering can produce Faraday rotators with highly enhanced polarization rotation for ultra-small integrated optical isolators. The main challenges to such devices are the elimination of linear birefringence and the efficient production of planar photonic band gap nanostructures. These challenges are addressed in the present article. In particular, we demonstrate the presence of stopbands and resonant polarization response in single-defect magneto-optic photonic crystal waveguides. However, waveguide birefringence degrades the magneto-optic response and results in significant ellipticity at resonance. Lower birefringence waveguides are required for enhanced magneto-optic performance.

Date Published: 8 October 2004
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 5515, Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, and Devices, (8 October 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.559050

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5515:
Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, and Devices
Elizabeth A. Dobisz; Louay A. Eldada, Editor(s)