title: Direct imaging of isofrequency contours in photonic structures.
abstract: The isofrequency contours of a photonic crystal are important for predicting and understanding exotic optical phenomena that are not apparent from high-symmetry band structure visualizations. We demonstrate a method to directly visualize the isofrequency contours of high-quality photonic crystal slabs that show quantitatively good agreement with numerical results throughout the visible spectrum. Our technique relies on resonance-enhanced photon scattering from generic fabrication disorder and surface roughness, so it can be applied to general photonic and plasmonic crystals or even quasi-crystals. We also present an analytical model of the scattering process, which explains the observation of isofrequency contours in our technique. Furthermore, the isofrequency contours provide information about the characteristics of the disorder and therefore serve as a feedback tool to improve fabrication processes.
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.; Department of Physics, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA.
authors.forename: Emma C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Regan
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.; Smart Energy Research Laboratories, NEC Corporation, 34 Miyuiga-ka, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Igarashi
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.; Physics Department and Solid State Institute, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7572-4594
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhen
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Ido
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2691-1892
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kaminer
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Chia Wei
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9609-7155
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Yichen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Joannopoulos
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Marin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Soljačić
keywords: Isofrequency contour; imaging; photonic crystal; photonics; scattering