Multichannel wavelength division multiplexing with photonic crystals

A multichannel wavelength-division-multiplexing system consisting of a two-dimensional photonic crystal is proposed. The system consists of two parts, a waveguiding element, realized by defects in a photonic crystal, and frequency-selective elements, realized by photonic crystal microcavities. Simulations, performed with a two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain technique with a perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary condition, showed the ability to filter an incident pulse into six spectral channels with a FWHM of 2 nm. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.