Application of optical switch based on the liquid-crystal modulated self-collimating photonic crystals

摘要

The tunability on the refractive index of the liquid crystals makes the photonic crystal optical switch possible, which comprises liquid crystal materials. In this article, based on the light induced alignment of liquid crystals and the self-collimation effect in the photonic crystals, an all-optical switch is proposed. The photonic crystal consists of silicon rods arranged in a triangular lattice in a liquid crystal background. The plane wave expansion (PWE) method is used to calculate the equi-frequency contours (EFCs) and the band diagrams. The transmission spectra are obtained by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The propagation of light in such structure is simulated with the FDTD method.