Photonic crystals are periodic dielectric structures which allow novel control of electromagnetic waves and enhanced nonlinear properties. In this work we have studied the propagation of high intensity femtosecond laser pulses through an AlGaAs waveguide with an embedded high contrast, two-dimensional photonic crystal. We have observed that the combination of the nonlinear properties of the waveguide and the spectral filtering of the photonic crystal leads to spectral narrowing and optical limiting when the laser pulses are tuned to resonance with the photonic stop band. These effects will be important for the design and operation of optical circuits incorporating photonic crystal lattices.
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