No Arabic abstract
A theoretical study of photonic bands for one-dimensional (1D) lattices embedded in planar waveguides with strong refractive index contrast is presented. The approach relies on expanding the electromagnetic field on the basis of guided modes of an effective waveguide, and on treating the coupling to radiative modes by perturbation theory. Photonic mode dispersion, gap maps, and intrinsic diffraction losses of quasi-guided modes are calculated for the case of self-standing membranes as well as for Silicon-on-Insulator structures. Photonic band gaps in a waveguide are found to depend strongly on the core thickness and on polarization, so that the gaps for transverse electric and transverse magnetic modes most often do not overlap. Radiative losses of quasi-guided modes above the light line depend in a nontrivial way on structure parameters, mode index and wavevector. The results of this study may be useful for the design of integrated 1D photonic structures with low radiative losses.
According to a recent proposal [S. Takayama et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 061107 (2005)], the triangular lattice of triangular air holes may allow to achieve a complete photonic band gap in two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs. In this work we present a systematic theoretical study of this photonic lattice in a high-index membrane, and a comparison with the conventional triangular lattice of circular holes, by means of the guided-mode expansion method whose detailed formulation is described here. Photonic mode dispersion below and above the light line, gap maps, and intrinsic diffraction losses of quasi-guided modes are calculated for the periodic lattice as well as for line- and point-defects defined therein. The main results are summarized as follows: (i) the triangular lattice of triangular holes does indeed have a complete photonic band gap for the fundamental guided mode, but the useful region is generally limited by the presence of second-order waveguide modes; (ii) the lattice may support the usual photonic band gap for even modes (quasi-TE polarization) and several band gaps for odd modes (quasi-TM polarization), which could be tuned in order to achieve doubly-resonant frequency conversion between an even mode at the fundamental frequency and an odd mode at the second-harmonic frequency; (iii) diffraction losses of quasi-guided modes in the triangular lattices with circular and triangular holes, and in line-defect waveguides or point-defect cavities based on these geometries, are comparable. The results point to the interest of the triangular lattice of triangular holes for nonlinear optics, and show the usefulness of the guided-mode expansion method for calculating photonic band dispersion and diffraction losses, especially for higher-lying photonic modes.
A novel polarizer made from two-dimensional photonic bandgap materials was demonstrated theoretically. This polarizer is fundamentally different from the conventinal ones. It can function in a wide frequency range with high performance and the size can be made very compact, which renders it useful as a micropolarizer in microoptics.
It is shown that total reflection for all incident angles does not require a two- or three-dimensional photonic crystal. We demonstrate that a one-dimensional photonic crystal can exhibit total omni-directional reflection for any incident wave within some frequency region. The formation of the omni-directional gap is discussed and a wide range of realistic fabrication parameters is proposed.
A finite element-based modal formulation of diffraction of a plane wave by an absorbing photonic crystal slab of arbitrary geometry is developed for photovoltaic applications. The semi-analytic approach allows efficient and accurate calculation of the absorption of an array with a complex unit cell. This approach gives direct physical insight into the absorption mechanism in such structures, which can be used to enhance the absorption. The verification and validation of this approach is applied to a silicon nanowire array and the efficiency and accuracy of the method is demonstrated. The method is ideally suited to studying the manner in which spectral properties (e.g., absorption) vary with the thickness of the array, and we demonstrate this with efficient calculations which can identify an optimal geometry.
The dispersion properties of exciton polaritons in multiple-quantum-well based resonant photonic crystals are studied. In the case of structures with an elementary cell possessing a mirror symmetry with respect to its center, a powerful analytical method for deriving and analyzing dispersion laws of the respective normal modes is developed. The method is used to analyze band structure and dispersion properties of several types of resonant photonic crystals, which would not submit to analytical treatment by other approaches. These systems include multiple quantum well structures with an arbitrary periodic modulation of the dielectric function and structures with a complex elementary cell. Special attention was paid to determining conditions for superradiance (Bragg resonance) in these structures, and to the properties of the polariton stop band in the case when this condition is fulfilled (Bragg structures). The dependence of the band structure on the angle of propagation, the polarization of the wave, and the effects due to exciton homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings are considered, as well as dispersion properties of excitations in near-Bragg structures.