Coupled photonic crystal nanobeam cavities

Abstract

We describe the design, fabrication, and spectroscopy of coupled, high quality (Q) factor silicon nanobeam photonic crystal cavities. We show that the single nanobeam cavity modes are coupled into even and odd superposition modes, and we simulate the frequency and Q factor as a function of nanobeam spacing, demonstrating that a differential wavelength shift of 70 nm between the two modes is possible while maintaining Q factors greater than 106. For both on substrate and freestanding nanobeams, we experimentally monitor the response of the even mode as the gap is varied, and measure Q factors as high as 2×105.