1-to-N beam splitter based on photonic crystal branched waveguide structure

A novel beam splitter is proposed based on a two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal (PC) branched waveguide structure. The beam splitter structure comprises branched waveguide channels and extra dielectric columns. These branched waveguide channels are used to obtain secondary sources and the introduced extra dielectric columns are used to control the phase difference of the secondary point sources. The field distributions of the beam are investigated using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD). It is found that the number of beams is sensitive to the distance of the waveguide channels ports and extra dielectric columns. By adjusting the positions of the waveguide channels and the parameters of the extra dielectric columns, 1-to-N beam splitters can be realized. These simple, easily fabricated and controllable structures have important potential applications in integrated optical circuits.