Highly efficient wide-angle transmission into uniform rod-type photonic crystals

Abstract

We report on very high coupling efficiencies into rod-type photonic crystal (PC) slabs with unmodified interfaces. Three-dimensional finite difference time domain simulations show that reflected powers of less than 1.5% can be achieved for incident angles from 0° to more than 25°.We use this property to design a beam combiner exhibiting both high efficiency coupling and self-collimation. The results could be applied to the design of efficient superprisms and other dispersion-based PC devices.