A three-dimensional optical photonic crystal with designed point defects.
Photonic crystals offer unprecedented opportunities for miniaturization and integration of optical devices. They also exhibit a variety of new physical phenomena, including suppression or enhancement of spontaneous emission, low-threshold lasing, and quantum information processing. Various techniques for the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals--such as silicon micromachining, wafer fusion bonding, holographic lithography, self-assembly, angled-etching, micromanipulation, glancing-angle deposition and auto-cloning--have been proposed and demonstrated with different levels of success. However, a critical step towards the fabrication of functional 3D devices, that is, the incorporation of microcavities or waveguides in a controllable way, has not been achieved at optical wavelengths. Here we present the fabrication of 3D photonic crystals that are particularly suited for optical device integration using a lithographic layer-by-layer approach. Point-defect microcavities are introduced during the fabrication process and optical measurements show they have resonant signatures around telecommunications wavelengths (1.3-1.5 microm). Measurements of reflectance and transmittance at near-infrared are in good agreement with numerical simulations.
Qi
Minghao
M
Centre for Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. mqi@alum.mit.edu
Lidorikis
Elefterios
E
Rakich
Peter T
PT
Johnson
Steven G
SG
Joannopoulos
J D
JD
Ippen
Erich P
EP
Smith
Henry I
HI