Photonic crystals for micro lightwave circuits using wavelength-dependent angular beam steering

Light-beam steering that is extremely wavelength dependent has been demonst rated by using photonic crystals fabricated on Si. The scanning span reache d 50 degrees with only a 1% shift of incident wavelength at around 1 mu m. The resulting angular dispersion is two orders of magnitude larger than tha t achieved with conventional prisms or gratings. The application of such su perprism phenomena promises to enable the fabrication of integrated micro l ightwave circuits that will allow more efficient use of wavelength resource s when used in wavelength multiplexers/demultiplexers or dispersion compens ators by enabling lower loss and broader bandwidth. (C) 1999 American Insti tute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)00910-9].