Radiation and transition losses in curved waveguides for Bloch surface waves

Abstract

One-dimensional photonic crystals that support the propagation of Bloch surface electromagnetic waves attract the interest of researchers as an alternative platform for integrated optics with potential applications in nanophotonics, sensing, and optical manipulation of micro- and nanoparticles. In this paper, we numerically study the properties of surface wave modes in curved waveguides on top of a one-dimensional photonic crystal. It is shown that, when the waveguide is bent, an additional channel of radiation losses appears, which is associated with light leakage from the surface wave mode into bulk modes of the photonic crystal, and the waveguide mode profile becomes asymmetric with respect to the middle of the waveguide. We also determine the conditions for minimizing transition losses, which occur at the junctions of waveguides with different curvatures, by transverse displacement of the waveguide facets relative to each other.