Guiding, bending, and splitting of electromagnetic waves in highly confined photonic crystal waveguides - art. no. 081107

We have experimentally demonstrated the guiding, bending, and splitting of electromagnetic (EM) waves in highly confined waveguides built around three -dimensional layer-by-layer photonic crystals by removing a single rod. Ful l transmission of the EM waves was observed for straight and bended wavegui des. We also investigated the power splitter structures in which the input EM power could be efficiently divided into the output waveguide ports. The experimental results. dispersion relation and photon lifetime, were analyze d with a theory based on the tight-binding photon picture. Our results prov ide an important tool for designing photonic crystal based optoelectronic c omponents.