Optical switch based on the liquid-crystal-modulated self-collimating photonic crystals
Abstract: In this paper, a compact optical switch for self-collimated light beams in a liquid-crystal-modulated photonic crystal is proposed. The designed optical switch is working at 1550 nm. The equifrequency contours and band diagram of the structure are calculated by using plane wave expansion method. The transmission spectra for different liquid crystal rotation angle are computed with finite-difference time-domain method. Meanwhile, the steady-state field distributions of the light propagation in the structure are presented. The designed optical switch may find important applications in the photonic integrated circuits.