Self-imaging effect of TM modes in photonic crystal multimode waveguides only exhibiting band gaps for TE modes

This Letter presents the properties of transverse-magnetic (TM) modes in multimode photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs), which only exhibit photonic band gaps for transverse-electric (TE) modes. A good equivalent model is applied to analysis the designed structures on the basis of multimode interference effect and self-imaging principle. The performance shows that the TM modes can also be propagated with high efficiency, and resemble index-guided modes owing to the combination of total internal reflection (TIR) and distribution Bragg reflection. It provides a novel way to realize the components for both TM and TE polarizations by combining PBG and TIR effect in PCWs. As one of potential applications, polarization-insensitive power splitter based on the proposed structures can be designed.