Abstract

There has been considerable interest in the area of photonic crystals in the last ten years because of their ability to miniaturize the size of optical circuits. Small optical waveguides, bends, and resonant cavities on the order of microns have been successfully demonstrated. However, much less progress has been made towards miniaturizing the size of active devices within these systems. This is a fundamentally difficult problem caused by the weak optical effects demonstrated by most optical materials. However, the highly dispersive nature of photonic crystal devices along with their small sizes and unique geometries may offer the potential to shrink down the sizes of these devices and create much smaller scale optical systems.

This study investigates the potential of developing small active devices within photonic crystal systems. A flexible photonic crystal device capable of being employed in highly compact superprism devices has been developed and demonstrated. In addition, the feasibility of using highly localized high temperature thermo-optic devices and strongly forward injected electro-optic devices to miniaturize the size of photonic crystal devices have been thoroughly assessed and evaluated by using a combination of microelectromechanical, electrical, and optical simulations during the course of this investigation.