Patent ID: 8249124

Claim:
An optical switch device comprising: a substrate; a photonic crystal having a dielectric material, the photonic crystal applied on the substrate; and an optical gain layer having an optical gain material, the optical gain layer disposed above the photonic crystal; wherein the photonic crystal is formed with a second-order distributed feedback structure to emit laser light perpendicular to a plane of the photonic crystal and a first-order distributed feedback structure adapted for reflecting light in the plane of the photonic crystal back into the second-order distributed feedback structure, the first-order distributed feedback structure at least one of fully surrounding the second-order distributed feedback structure and being arranged on two opposing edges of the second-order distributed feedback structure; and further wherein the second-order distributed feedback structure has single structures with a periodicity indicating the number of repetitions of the single structures and a lattice constant indicating a distance between the single structures and defining an upper bandedge wavelength and a lower bandedge wavelength of light to be emitted, the second-order distributed feedback structure having a periodicity selected such that at least one defect modes of wavelengths between the upper bandedge wavelength and the lower bandedge wavelength are established having a quality factor of more than a predetermined threshold.