Three-visible-light wave combiner based on photonic crystal waveguides

Abstract

We present a three-visible-light wave combiner based on two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides whose widths are not integral multiples of the lattice period. The proposed device consists of two cascaded directional couplers. It combines three visible light waves with different wavelengths from three input ports into a single output port. As an example, a combiner for combining light waves of 635, 532, and 488 nm, which are commonly used as the three primary colors in laser display systems, is designed and demonstrated through the finite-difference time-domain method. The results show that the proposed device can perform efficient synthesis for three visible light waves with transmittance exceeding 89% for each wavelength and high ability in preventing the backward coupling of waves from different waveguides. The method for designing the combiner is useful for designing other waveguide couplers based on photonic crystals made of dispersion materials.