Thermally Tunable Photonic Filter for WDM Networks Using 1D Superconductor Dielectric Photonic Crystals

A novel design of a single-channel thermally tunable photonic filter by cascading two one-dimensional (1D) superconductor-dielectric photonic crystals (SDPCs) through low loss silica fiber for wavelength selective switching (WSS) application is being presented theoretically. This filter is capable to separate and switch unique wavelength channel (without interfering with each other) from 12 equally spaced wavelength channels adopted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It may be used in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)-based optical networks for routing signals at specific wavelengths into an optical fiber with minimum distortion. This idea may also be explored in the design of very precise thermal sensing devices for remote sensing applications.