• Frontiers of Optoelectronics
  • Vol. 13, Issue 1, 2 (2020)
C.T. CHAN*
DOI: 10.1007/s12200-020-1022-2 Cite this Article
C.T. CHAN. Photonic crystals and topological photonics[J]. Frontiers of Optoelectronics, 2020, 13(1): 2 Copy Citation Text show less

Abstract

The idea of photonic crystals and photonic band gap was first introduced by both Yablonovitch [1] and John in 1987 [2]. Photonic crystals are man-made periodic optical media in which the dispersion of light is strongly modified due to the scattering of periodically arranged dielectric or metal inclusions in the unit cell. Photonic band gaps, a frequency range in which light cannot propagate, can form as a consequence of Bragg scattering or the resonance of the inclusions in the unit cell. The existence of band gaps means that photonic crystals can serve as low-loss distributed feedback mirrors and as such, they can confine light and can be used to realize high fidelity resonant cavities that can facilitate the observation of quantum electronics phenomena. The application of such ideas to realize strong coupling between photon and exciton is achieved using planar dielectric Si periodic structures [3]. When combined with a gain material, photonic crystals are obviously good platforms to realize lasing and indeed photonic crystal based lasers have attracted great interest in past three decades. The technical challenges and progress in distributed feedback organic lasers based on photonic crystals are discussed and reviewed by Fu and Zhai [4]. For practical applications, nonlinear photonic crystals with different superlattices has been successfully used in quasi-phase matching and nonlinear diffraction harmonic generation. This is reviewed by Li and Ma [5].
C.T. CHAN. Photonic crystals and topological photonics[J]. Frontiers of Optoelectronics, 2020, 13(1): 2
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