3D control of light in waveguide-based two-dimensional photonic crystals

Photonic crystals have seen major advances in the past few years in the opt ical range. The association of inplane waveguiding and two-dimensional phot onic crystals (PCs) in thin-slab or waveguide structures leads to good 3D c onfinement with easy fabrication. Such structures. much easier to fabricate than 3D PCs open many exciting opportunities in optoelectronic devices and integrated optics. We present experiments on a variety of structures and d evices. as well as modelling tools, which show that 2D PCs etched through w aveguides supported by substrates arp a viable route to high-performance PC -based photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In particular, they exhibit low outer-plane diffraction losses. Low-loss waveguides, high finesse microcav ities. and their mutual coupling are demonstrated.