All-Optical Ultrafast Switching of Si Woodpile Photonic Band Gap Crystals

by Tijmen G. Euser et al. arXiv.org E-print Archive, 6 Mar 2006 We present ultrafast all-optical switching measurements of Si woodpile photonic band gap crystals at telecom frequencies. The crystals are homogeneously excited by a two-photon process. We probe the switching by measuring reflectivity over broad frequency ranges as a function of time. At short delay times, we observe that the photonic gap becomes narrower than in the unswitched case. After 1 ps, the complete gap has shifted to higher frequencies. This intricate behavior is the result of competing refractive index changes due to the electronic Kerr effect and to optically excited free carriers. The frequency shift of the band gap as a function of pump intensity agrees well with Fourier modal method calculations with no freely adjustable parameters. Read more