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The nanoscale wavelength and polarization router, which can simultaneously separate wavelength and polarization modes, is an essential component of on-chip nanophotonic devices. Here, an on-chip wavelength and polarization router is realized experimentally based on a three-layer hybrid waveguide of Au-SiO

The nanoscale wavelength and polarization router, which can simultaneously separate wavelength and polarization modes, is an essential component of on-chip nanophotonic devices. Here, an on-chip wavelength and polarization router is realized experimentally based on a three-layer hybrid waveguide of Au−SiO2−LiNbO3 etched with asymmetric nano-cavities. The central area size of the device is only 1.60×1.96 μm2. A broad operation band covers from 500 nm to 1150 nm with low cross talk of under 10 dB. The monolithic-LiNbO3is introduced for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, to on-chip multichannel wavelength and polarization routers. This work plays a key role for dense chip integration, visible light displays, and communications, and can inspire LiNbO3-based nanophotonic devices.

We report a tunable wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) structure based on two-dimensional silver nanoparticle arrays. The linewidth of the multiple geometric resonances of the arrays is of the order of several nanometers generally, which guarantees high wavelength selectivity. Optical channels can be selectively activated by setting the polarization of the incident wave. The operation wavelength can be tuned from the visible to the near infrared, and the free spectral range can be adjusted from hundreds to tens of nanometers by varying the size of the constituent particles and the interparticle distances. The proposed structure can provide an extinction ratio of ~10 and a quality factor of ~700. This tunable, easy-to-produce, and subwavelength WDM structure is desirable for plasmonic integrated circuits.

An all-optical tunable photonic bandgap microcavity made from a two-dimensional polystyrene photonic crystal is fabricated by focused ion beam etching. The pump and probe scheme is adopted to measure tunability based on the femtosecond optical Kerr effect. An ultrafast response time of less than 120 fs is achieved for the tunable photonic bandgap microcavity. The microcavity resonant wavelength shifts 3.1 nm under excitation of 9.4 GW/cm2 pump intensity, which is in agreement with the theoretical prediction.

A tunable filter made from a two-dimensional polystyrene photonic crystal is fabricated by focused ion-beam etching. The pump and probe scheme is adopted to measure tunability based on the picosecond optical Kerr effect. The response time of the tunable filter, approximately 10 ps, is within the measurement resolution. The maximum shift of optical channels is estimated to be 6 nm under excitation of 15.9 GW/cm2 pump intensity, which is in agreement with the theoretical prediction.

We experimentally realize a nanoscale all-optical diode in a photonic crystal heterostructure with broken spatial inversion symmetry, performing independent of optical nonlinearity. The physical mechanism lies in unique dispersion relations of the photonic crystal and the transition of incident light between different electromagnetic Bloch modes. An ultrahigh transmission contrast of 10(3) order, a large operating bandwidth of over 50 nm, and an ultralow photon intensity of less than 10 kW/cm(2) are reached simultaneously.