Polarization-Independent Surface Plasmon Liquid Crystal Photonic Crystal Multiplexer-Demultiplexer

A novel design of polarization-independent surface plasmon multiplexer demultiplexer (MUX/DEMUX) based on dual-core photonic crystal fiber with a central gold wire is proposed and analyzed. The cladding air holes are infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal of type E7 with rotation angle phi, and the background material is a soft glass of type SF57 (lead silica). The simulation results are obtained using full-vectorial finitedifference method and coupled mode theory. At phi = 90 degrees, the suggested MUX/DEMUX has a short device length of 953.254 mu m for x-polarized modes with broad bandwidths of 235 and 175 nm around wavelengths of 1.3 and 1.55 mu m, respectively, with low cross-talk better than 20 dB. For y-polarized modes, the reported MUX/DEMUX has short device length of 1322.86 mu m with broad bandwidths of 193 and 170 nm around 1.3 and 1.55 pm, respectively. Moreover, the polarization independence is achieved with short device lengths of 1138.06 and 1180 mu m at phi = 90 degrees and 0 degrees, respectively.