Optimization of a Photonic Crystal Waveguide Termination

Photonic crystal (PC) devices exploit the photonic band gap effect to control the propagation of certain frequencies of light.¹

The exact distribution of the different dielectric materials has a strong effect on device performance, consequently, many different methods for improving PC devices are under investigation. One method that has already proven useful is Topology Optimization (TO).

With its origins in structural optimization2 this method has recently been adapted to design photonic structures.³ In standard TO, the domain of the photonic device is discretized into small subdomains in which the material dielectric field is parameterized to be piecewise uniform.

Starting from an initial design, i.e. material distribution, a TO algorithm adjusts the subdomain dielectric parameters between that of air and that of the strong dielectric.