Silicon-Based Thermo-Optically Tunable Photonic Crystal Lens

We report an extremely compact (30 ¿m × 7 ¿m) silicon-based 2-D thermo-optically tunable photonic crystal (PhC) lens operated at around telecommunication wavelength (1.55 ¿m ) with transverse-magnetic-like polarization light. A honeycomb lattice array of high index silicon rods with 340 nm in thickness, 234 nm in diameter, and 338 nm in lattice constant were embedded in 3-¿m-thick low index silicon dioxide. A 150-nm-thick NiCr micro-heater was placed directly on top of the PhC structure to provide localized heating to the silicon rod array. The localized heating causes refractive index change in silicon due to thermo-optic effect which results in change of the focal length of the PhC lens. The device was characterized with a tunable laser light source in the wavelength range of 1500 ~ 1580 nm. Tuning of focal length in this device was experimentally demonstrated by applying different current through the heater. Such experimental results showed good agreement with the simulation results.