Configurable silicon photonic crystal waveguides

In this Letter, we demonstrate that the mode cut off of a photonic crystal waveguide can be trimmed with high accuracy by electron beam bleaching of a chromophore doped polymer cladding. Using this method, configurable waveguides are realized, which allow for spatially resolved changes of the photonic crystal's effective lattice constant as small as 7.6 pm. We show three different examples how to take advantage of configurable photonic crystal waveguides: Shifting of the complete transmission spectrum, definition of cavities with high quality factor, and tuning of existing cavities. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.