Abstract

During the past several years there has been significant research involving the design, measurement, and theory of periodic dielectric structures that exhibit a photonic bandgap.¹ These photonic crystal structures could be useful in many applications that require frequency specific optical modulators or reflectors. As demonstrated recently at microwave frequencies, photonic crystal structures that incorporate metallic scattering centers can exhibit large electromagnetic stop bands.² The resulting structures are referred to as metallodielectric photonic crystals (MDPCs). We report here progress in developing MDPCs with stop bands in the infrared. Using standard microelectronic techniques we have fabricated arrays of 3-dimensional photonic crystals on silicon substrates. The metallic "atoms" are laid out in a (100)-oriented fee arrangement as seen from the normal to the plane of the substrate. Stop-band characteristics of fabricated IR MDPC samples have been measured using the technique of Fourier-transform spectroscopy. Rejection levels of up to 20 dB are found in the stop bands of some of the structures. IR MDPC results are compared with measurements made on microwave-scale MDPC structures to help in understanding the infrared results.

© 1997 Optical Society of America