INTEGRATING ELEMENT FOR OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BASED ON PHOTONIC MULTI-BANDGAP QUASI-CRYSTALS HAVING OPTIMIZED TRANSFER FUNCTIONS

摘要

The present invention provides a photonic multi-bandgap structure, herein also referred to as photonic bandgap quasi-crystal ('PBQC'), that can direct light, having wavelength components within a selected passband (($gD) (λ), from an input port, to a predefined output port, while providing an integrating element for Planar Lightwave Circuits. A photonic bandgap quasi-crystal of the invention combines in a planar waveguide spectrally selective properties of gratings, focusing properties of elliptical mirrors, superposition properties of thick holograms, photonic bandgaps of periodic structures, and flexibility of binary lithography. A photonic structure of the invention can be utilized, for example, as an integrating spectrally sensitive element in a variety of optical devices that can include, but are not limited to, optical switches, optical multiplexer/demultiplexers, multi-wavelength lasers, and channel monitors in Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) telecommunications system.