Analysis of thin-film photonic crystal microstructures

Optical-scale microstructures containing thin-film photonic crystals (TFPCs) are modelled by transfer/scattering matrix methods, based on Fourier-series expansion of the optical Bloch eigenmodes. The majority of the TFPCs considered consist of 2D arrays of holes arranged in a triangular lattice, etched into high-index Al_xGa_1_-_xAs and placed on a low-index oxidised substrate. These TFPCs can be easily fabricated by standard electron-beam lithography techniques. Unlike most photonic crystal devices that have been proposed, our 'intra-pass-band' TFPCs would work by exploiting the somewhat surprising properties of propagating optical Bloch waves rather than directly relying on photonic bandgaps. By numerical modelling, it is demonstrated that 2D-patterned TFPCs can support highly dispersive high-Q quasi-guided and truly-guided resonant modes, and the unusual properties of these modes are explained in terms of their Bloch-wave compositions. Modal dispersion diagrams of TFPCs, showing the loci of the resonant modes in in-plane wavevector space at fixed frequency, are calculated. These so-called 'resonance diagrams' and variants thereof, are shown to be a useful design tool for TFPC-based integrated optical components. It is suggested that TFPCs may be a viable alternative to distributed Bragg reflectors in semiconductor vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers, possessing potential advantages in terms of compactness and ease of fabrication. The high angular and spectral dispersion of the resonant modes implies that TFPCs could form the basis of a new family of compact devices for performing such functions as wavelength-division multiplexing/demultiplexing, beam-steering and frequency-selective filtering. Enhancement of nonlinear effects could also be achieved in TFPC resonators, because in them a high cavity Q-factor and a low in-plane group-velocity can be attained simultaneously. (author)SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN062146 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo