Power splitter based on photonic crystal waveguides with an air holes array

We propose a new type of 3 dB optical power splitter by splitting reflected field in photonic bandgaps (PBGs) based on photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs) with a triangular lattice of air holes. By employing PBGs effect, the propagation fields with frequencies under the cutoff frequency of guided modes in a modulated PCW (MPCW) are reflected back and output from two symmetrically placed waveguides. As a consecutive section of input PCW, the MPCW is realized by varying the size of the border holes adjacent to the PCW core. A nearly full transmission with a wide bandwidth is achieved only by introducing a defect hole in the MPCW. It provides a new method and a compact model to split input power in PCW devices and can find practical applications in future photonic integrated circuits. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3646102]