Abstract

There is great deal of interest in developing photonic crystal based waveguides where one can confine and efficiently guide the light around sharp corners.^1-6 Guiding the light without losses, and even through sharp corners was observed in two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals.¹ However, to avoid the leakage problem in 2D structures, either one has to extend the size of the photonic crystal in the vertical direction, or use a strong index-guiding mechanism in the vertical direction.⁶ A way to eliminate the leakage is to use a three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystal. Here, we demonstrate the guiding and bending of EM waves in highly confined waveguides which were constructed by removing a single rod from a perfect 3D layer-by-layer photonic crystal.⁷

© 2001 Optical Society of America