Proposal for enhancing the transmission efficiency of photonic crystal 60° waveguide bends by means of optofluidic infiltration.

We are proposing a procedure to enhance the transmission efficiency of 60° photonic crystal (PhC) waveguide bends by means of selective optofluidic infiltration of an air hole, which is created as a point defect at the center of the conventional 60° PhC bend. Numerical studies demonstrate that by varying the defect radius and indices of optical fluids, one may enhance the bend transmission level and tune its 3 dB bandwidth over a substantial range of 88-138 nm. In order to perform the numerical simulations, we have used two-dimensional (2D) finite difference time domain plane wave method, keeping in mind that the spectral features obtained by these 2D calculations are about 15% redshifted from those of real three-dimensional structures.