Large enhancement of optical nonlinearity using quantum dots embedded in a photonic crystal structure for all-optical switch applications

摘要

We propose a novel enhancement structure of the optical nonlinearity (ONL) by using quantum dots (QDs) embedded in a photonic crystal (PC), to reduce the optical consumption power of all-optical switch applied for future OTDM systems. The energies of the control light and signal light are adjusted to a dielectric-band and air-band edges of PC, respectively. The configuration can efficiently use the advantages of PC (unique dispersion, low group velocity, small spot size and optical power localization) and QDs (large ONL, 3-D carrier confinement and discrete energy level). It can provide more than an order of magnitude lower optical consumption power than that of the conventional device.