North-Holland Photonic band structure: Non-spherical atoms in the face-centered-cubic case

We introduce a practical, new, face-centered-cubic (FCC) dielectric structure which simultaneously ~lves two of the outstanding problems in photonic band structure. In this new "'photonic crystal " the atoms are non-spherical, lifting the degeneracy at the W-point of the Brillouin zone, and permitting a full photonic band gap rather than a pseudogap. Furthermore. this fully 3-dimensional FCC structure lends it.l l readily to microfabricatkm on the scale of optical wavelengths. It is created by simply drilling 3 sets of holes 35.26 ° off the vertical into the top surface of a solid slab or wafer, as can be done for example by chemical beam assisted ion etching. It appears that the application tffphotonic band gaps to semiconductor physics, optical and atomic physics may ~t~n be practical. Among the analogies between optics and micro-electronics, one of the most compelling is that between electron waves in a crystal and photon waves in a three-dimensionally periodic dielectric structure. The behaviour of both waves should be described by band theory. The idea of photonic band structure [l, 2] is gaining rapid [3-6] acceptance. The concepts of reciproca