Photonic crystal slabs demonstrating strong broadband suppression of transmission in the presence of disorders.

We characterize the transmission spectra of out-of-plane, normal-incidence light of two-dimensional silicon photonic crystal slabs and observe excellent agreement between the measured data and finite-difference time-domain simulations over the 1050-1600-nm wavelength range. Crystals that are 340 nm thick and have holes of 330-nm radius on a square lattice of 998-nm pitch show 20-dB extinction in transmission from 1220 to 1255 nm. Increasing the hole radius to 450 nm broadens the extinction band further, and we obtain >85% extinction from 1310 to 1550 nm.

Stopping light in a waveguide with an all-optical analog of electromagnetically induced transparency.

We introduce a new all-optical mechanism that can compress the bandwidth of light pulses to absolute zero, and bring them to a complete stop. The mechanism can be realized in a system consisting of a waveguide side coupled to tunable resonators, which generates a photonic band structure that represents a classical analogue of the electromagnetically induced transparency. The same system can also achieve a time-reversal operation.

One-mode model for patterned metal layers inside integrated color pixels.

Optimized design of the optical filters inside integrated color pixels (ICPs) for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor image sensors requires analytical models. ICP optical filters consist of subwavelength patterned metal layers. We show that a one-mode model, in which subwavelength gaps in the metal layer are described in terms of single-mode waveguides, suffices to predict the salient features of measured ICP wavelength selectivity.

Angular and polarization properties of a photonic crystal slab mirror.

It was recently demonstrated that a photonic crystal slab can function as a mirror for externally incident light along a normal direction with near-complete reflectivity over a broad wavelength range. We analyze the angular and polarization properties of such photonic crystal slab mirror, and show such reflectivity occurs over a sizable angular range for both polarizations. We also show that such mirror can be designed to reflect one polarization completely, while allowing 100% transmission for the other polarization, thus behaving as a polarization splitter with a complete contrast.

Mechanically switchable photonic crystal filter with either all-pass transmission or flat-top reflection characteristics.

We theoretically introduce a new type of optical all-pass filter based on guided resonance in coupled photonic crystal slabs. The filter exhibits near-complete transmission for both on- and off-resonant frequencies and yet generates large resonant group delay. We further show that such a filter can be mechanically switched into a flat-top band rejection filter.

Temporal coupled-mode theory for the Fano resonance in optical resonators.

We present a theory of the Fano resonance for optical resonators, based on a temporal coupled-mode formalism. This theory is applicable to the general scheme of a single optical resonance coupled with multiple input and output ports. We show that the coupling constants in such a theory are strongly constrained by energy-conservation and time-reversal symmetry considerations.