Abstract

Currently nanophotonics approZaches like photonic crystal based devices and integrated circuits are receiving intense attention due to their application potential in ultracompact and eventually cheap integrated photonic circuits. By using patterning on the nanometer scale or with nanometer precision new functionalities regarding the emission properties or waveguiding are obtained. By patterning a high refractive index material on the wavelength scale of light in one, two, or three dimensions e.g. with air holes a photonic crystal (PhC) can be formed. The strong periodic variation of the refractive index results in the formation of a band structure for photons. Most importantly the design of the photonic crystal can be chosen appropriately that there are wavelength ranges in which the photon propagation is forbidden. The photonic energy gaps can be used to define miniaturized reflectors which may be used as e.g. laser mirrors, boundaries of waveguides, filters etc.

© 2005 Optical Society of America