title: A three-dimensional optical photonic crystal with designed point defects.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. mqi@alum.mit.edu
authors.forename: Minghao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Elefterios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lidorikis
authors.forename: Peter T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Rakich
authors.forename: Steven G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Joannopoulos
authors.forename: Erich P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Ippen
authors.forename: Henry I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Smith