The past decade has witnessed intensive research efforts related to the design and fabrication of photonic crystals. These periodically structured dielectric materials can represent the optical analogue of semiconductor crystals, and provide a novel platform for the realization of integrated photonics. Despite intensive efforts, inexpensive fabrication techniques for large-scale three-dimension...

The objective of this thesis research is to analyze the guided resonances in photonic crystal slabs. It introduces the different kinds of photonic crystals and focuses on photonic crystal slabs consisting of a square lattice of air holes. The guided resonances are created by the coupling between the guided modes above the light line and radiation modes. Specifically, we calculate the transmissi...

Background and Objectives: Recently, photonic crystals have been considered as the basic structures for the realization of various optical devices for high speed optical communication. Methods: In this research, two dimensional photonic crystals are used for designing all optical logic gates. A photonic crystal structure with a triangular lattice is proposed for making NAND, XNOR, and OR optica...

Slow-light enhanced optical detection in liquid-infiltrated photonic crystals is theoretically studied. Using a scattering-matrix approach and the Wigner–Smith delay time concept, we show that optical absorbance benefits both from slow-light phenomena as well as a high filling factor of the energy residing in the liquid. Utilizing strongly dispersive photonic crystal structures, we numerically ...

We report on the observation of self-alignment of nematic liquid crystals into colloidal photonic crystals, over distances much larger than the typical size of the voids between the spheres. We observe that the infiltrated structure possesses a unique optical axis that is determined by an intrinsic structural anisotropy of photonic crystal opals. We develop a simple model to describe this self-...

The problem of slowing down light by orders of magnitude has been extensively discussed in the literature. Such a possibility can be useful in a variety of optical and microwave applications. Many qualitatively different approaches have been explored. Here we discuss how this goal can be achieved in linear dispersive media, such as photonic crystals. The existence of slowly propagating electrom...