Compact wavelength demultiplexing using focusing negative index photonic crystal superprisms

© 2006 Optical Society of AmericaThe definitive version of this paper is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.14.002413DOI: 10.1364/OE.14.002413Here, we demonstrate a compact photonic crystal wavelength demultiplexing device based on a diffraction compensation scheme with two orders of magnitude performance improvement over the conventional superprism structures reported to date. We show that the main problems of the conventional superprism-based wavelength demultiplexing devices can be overcome by combining the superprism effect with two other main properties of photonic crystals, i.e., negative diffraction and negative refraction. Here, a 4-channel optical demultiplexer with a channel spacing of 8 nm and cross-talk level of better than -6.5 dB is experimentally demonstrated using a 4500 μm² photonic crystal region