Photonic-crystal time-domain simulations using Wannier functions

We present a Wannier-function-based time-domain method for photonic-crystal integrated optical circuits. In contrast to other approaches, this method allows one to trade CPU time against memory consumption and therefore is particularly well suited for the treatment of large-scale systems. As an illustration, we apply the method to the design of a photonic-crystal-based sensor, which utilizes a dual Mach-Zehnder-Fano interferometer. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America