PHOTONIC CRYSTAL WAVEGUIDE AND ITS MANUFACTURE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stabilize characteristics of the photonic crystal waveguide and to reduce the manufacturing cost. SOLUTION: The photonic crystal waveguide is provided with a photonic crystal 14 structure which has a slab optical waveguide 3 on the top surface of a substrate 2 and also has refractive index variation areas 13 with a different refractive index from that of the core layer of the slab optical waveguide 3 arranged in a lattice array shape at part of the slab optical waveguide 3. In this case, the refractive index variation areas 13 are formed of the same material as the material constituting the core layer of the slab optical waveguide 3. The refractive index variation areas 13 are arranged in the lattice array shape on both the sides of an optical waveguide area 6 where light is propagated. The refractive index of the core layers of the refractive index variation areas 13 is larger than that of the core layer of an area off the refractive index variation areas 13 and the relative index difference is about 10<-4> to 10<-2> . A unit lattice is in regular triangle array.