Open AccessPhysical mechanisms for tuning the nonlinear effects in photonic crystals
Author(s) -
Zhixiang Tang,
Wei-Jian Yi,
Jiawei Pan,
Yanhong Zou,
Shuangchun Wen,
Aaron J. Danner,
ChengWei Qiu
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.23.019885
Subject(s) - nonlinear system , refractive index , optics , photonic crystal , modulation (music) , nonlinear optics , wavelength , kerr effect , self phase modulation , cross phase modulation , physics , photonics , field (mathematics) , limit (mathematics) , phase (matter) , light field , phase modulation , materials science , phase noise , quantum mechanics , mathematical analysis , mathematics , acoustics , pure mathematics
By simultaneously taking field localization and slow light effects into account, in this paper we make use of a field averaging method to calculate the effective nonlinear refractive index coefficient (n2) of Kerr photonic crystals (PhCs) in the first band. Although the nonlinear PhC is beyond the traditional long-wavelength limit, interestingly, the theoretically calculated effective n2 agrees well with one numerically measured via the self-phase-modulation induced spectral broadening. Moreover, due to the cooperative influence of field localization and slow light effects, the effective n2 of the PhC decreases slowly at first and then goes up quickly with increasing frequency. This kind of dispersive nonlinearity is purely induced by the periodic nanostructures because the optical parameters of both components of the PhC we took are frequency-independent. Our results may pave the way for enhancing or limiting nonlinear effects and provide a method for producing the dispersive nonlinearity.