Local tuning of photonic crystal cavities using chalcogenide glasses

We demonstrate a method to locally change the refractive index in planar optical devices by photodarkening of a thin chalcogenide glass layer deposited on top of the device. The method is used to tune the resonance of GaAs-based photonic crystal cavities by up to 3 nm at 940 nm. The method has broad applications for postproduction tuning of photonic devices. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.