Project 5: Photonic Crystal

Overview

Designers:

Ngoc Diep Lai and Vincent Jacques

A photonic crystal is a structure in which the dielectric constant varies periodically on the wavelength scale in one or more spatial directions. This physical system is the formal analog of a semiconductor crystal, which affects the movement of electrons by creating allowed and forbidden energy bands. The absence of propagating electromagnetic wave modes in such structures, within a range of frequencies or wavelengths, is then referred to as a photonic bandgap.

The simplest example of a photonic crystal is a Bragg mirror (a 1D photonic crystal), which consists of alternately depositing layers of dielectric materials with different refractive indices. The photonic bandgap can then be observed simply by measuring the transmission spectrum of the structure.