P Marin Soljačić Photonic Crystal Enhancement of Optical Non - linearities

) soljačić mit physics annual 2006 hysical phenomenon of optical non-linearities describes the fact that high intensity light can modify the index of refraction of the material in which it propagates. Typically, this effect is fairly weak. However, the emerging field of nonlinear photonic crystals appears destined to change this situation dramatically, to the extent that even all-optical signal processing might become feasible. All-optical devices enabled by photonic crystal designs can be smaller than the wavelength of light, operate at very low powers, and with bandwidths that are very difficult to achieve electronically.