Preprint article · Journal article
Impact of slow-light enhancement on optical propagation in active semiconductor photonic crystal waveguides
Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark1
Quantum and Laser Photonics, Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark2
Office for Research and Relations, Administration, Technical University of Denmark3
Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology, Technical University of Denmark4
We derive and validate a set of coupled Bloch wave equations for analyzing the reflection and transmission properties of active semiconductor photonic crystal waveguides. In such devices, slow-light propagation can be used to enhance the material gain per unit length, enabling, for example, the realization of short optical amplifiers compatible with photonic integration.
The coupled wave analysis is compared to numerical approaches based on the Fourier modal method and a frequency domain finite element technique. The presence of material gain leads to the build-up of a backscattered field, which is interpreted as distributed feedback effects or reflection at passive-active interfaces, depending on the approach taken.
For very large material gain values, the band structure of the waveguide is perturbed, and deviations from the simple coupled Bloch wave model are found.
Language: | English |
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Year: | 2015 |
Pages: | 8 |
ISSN: | 10941622 , 10502947 and 24699926 |
Types: | Preprint article and Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevA.92.053839 |
ORCIDs: | Gregersen, Niels and Mørk, Jesper |