Evanescent Coupling to Photonic Crystals

Presented by Cameron Smith (CUDOS) 

By confining light into nanometer-scale spaces, photonic crystals offer next generation, low-power high-speed switching - breaking the electronic speed limit. One problem is that photonic crystals have very small components (hundred times narrower than your hair), so light cannot be launched into it efficiently from regular optical fibres. We overcome this by the technique of evanescent coupling via specially treated optical nanowire. The narrow dimensions of the nano-wire result in a significant portion of the electromagnetic energy propagating outside the nanowire boundary, which then
interacts with objects in close proximity – such as a photonic crystal.


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