Design of highly efficient optical diodes based on the dynamics of nonlinear photonic crystal molecules

We investigate the unidirectional transmission behavior of photonic crystal (PC) molecules consisting of defect pairs with Kerr nonlinearity and focus on how to enhance the transmission contrast and maximum transmission of the resulting optical diodes. Theoretical analyses in combination with the numerical simulations based on the finite-difference time-domain technique are employed to evaluate the designed optical diodes. It is found that by intentionally and properly misaligning the resonant frequencies of the constitutional PC atoms, the transmission contrast as well as the maximum transmission of the nonlinear PC molecules can be significantly improved. The figure of merit that characterizes the performance of optical diodes can be enhanced by a factor of 5 as compared with the optical diodes constructed by single asymmetrically confined PC atoms. In addition, the optimum performance of the optical diodes can be achieved only when the operating frequency is properly chosen. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America