Optical modes conversion in magneto-photonic crystal waveguides S.A. Nikitov * ,1 , Ph. Tailhades CIRIMAT, UMR±CNRS 5085, Universite Paul Sabatier, 118 Rte de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex, France Received 24 July 2001; accepted 25 September 2001 Abstract We study the propagation of optical radiation in magnetic waveguides with the periodic domain structures mag- neto-photoniccrystals).Twotypesofperiodicstructuresarestudied±±one-andtwo-dimensional1Dand2D).Optical modesconversionispossessedbyboththe®rst-andsecond-ordermagneto-opticeectsandscatteringbythedomains. Inthe2Dperiodicstructuresconversionbecomesanisotropicandstronglydependsontheparametersofthestructure. Theparametersofthedomainstructuresdependontheexternalmagnetic®eld,thereforetheconversioneciencycan bemodulatedbythevariationofthis®eld.Anumericalanalysisisprovidedofthedispersionoftheinteractingmodes as well as of the dependence of the intensity of the converted radiation on the parameters of the domain struc- ture. Ó 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 42.70.Qs; 41.20.q; 84.40.x Keywords: Photonic crystals; Magneto-photonic crystals; Optical modes conversion; Magnetic domain structures 1. Introduction The subject of fabrication and investigation of photonic band gap PBG) materials is one of the most widely discussed in scienti®c community see, e.g., Refs. [1±10] and references therein). These materials facilitate two basic optical principles: the light localisation and the suppression of spontaneous emission. Recently,newphenomenarelatedtovariousapplicationshavebeenexploitedinPBGcrystals.Namely,the tunability of the photonic band structure [11] and optical multirefringence [12]. The tunability of PBG crystals is achieved through electro-optic eect. Optical multirefringence is prohibited in homogeneous nonmagneticdielectricsandispossessedbytheperiodicstructureofPBGcrystals.Evenwiderapplications 1 December 2001 Optics Communications 199 2001) 389±397 www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom * Corresponding author. Fax: +33-3-6155-6163. E-mail addresses: nikitov@chimie.ups-tlse.fr, nikitov@mail.cplire.ru S.A. Nikitov). 1 On leave from the Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 11, Mokhovaya Street, 101999 Moscow, Russia. 0030-4018/01/$ - see front matter Ó 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0030-401801)01583-8