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Photonic Crystals:
A New Frontier in Modern Optics
MARIAN FLORESCU
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
“ If only were possible to make materials in which
electromagnetically waves cannot propagate at
certain frequencies, all kinds of almost-magical things
would happen”
Sir John Maddox, Nature (1990)
Photonic Crystals
Photonic crystals: periodic dielectric structures.
 interact resonantly with radiation with wavelengths comparable to the
periodicity length of the dielectric lattice.
 dispersion relation strongly depends on frequency and propagation direction
 may present complete band gaps  Photonic Band Gap (PBG) materials.
Two Fundamental Optical Principles
• Localization of Light
S. John, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58,2486 (1987)
• Inhibition of Spontaneous Emission
E. Yablonovitch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58 2059 (1987)
 Guide and confine light without losses
 Novel environment for quantum mechanical light-matter interaction
 A rich variety of micro- and nano-photonics devices
Photonic Crystals History
1987: Prediction of photonic crystals
S. John, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58,2486 (1987), “Strong localization of photons
in certain dielectric superlattices”
E. Yablonovitch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58 2059 (1987), “Inhibited spontaneous
emission in solid state physics and electronics”
1990: Computational demonstration of photonic crystal
K. M. Ho, C. T Chan, and C. M. Soukoulis, Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 3152 (1990)
1991: Experimental demonstration of microwave photonic crystals
E. Yablonovitch, T. J. Mitter, K. M. Leung, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 2295 (1991)
1995: ”Large” scale 2D photonic crystals in Visible
U. Gruning, V. Lehman, C.M. Englehardt, Appl. Phys. Lett. 66 (1995)
1998: ”Small” scale photonic crystals in near Visible; “Large” scale
inverted opals
1999: First photonic crystal based optical devices (lasers, waveguides)
Photonic Crystals- Semiconductors of Light
Semiconductors
Photonic Crystals
Periodic array of atoms
Periodic variation of dielectric
constant
Atomic length scales
Length scale ~ 
Natural structures
Artificial structures
Control electron flow
Control e.m. wave propagation
1950’s electronic revolution
New frontier in modern optics
Natural Photonic Crystals:
Structural Colours through Photonic Crystals
Natural opals
Periodic structure  striking colour effect even in the absence of pigments
Artificial Photonic Crystals
Requirement: overlapping of frequency gaps along different directions
 High ratio of dielectric indices
 Same average optical path in different media
 Dielectric networks should be connected
Woodpile structure
S. Lin et al., Nature (1998)
Inverted Opals
J. Wijnhoven & W. Vos, Science (1998)
Photonic Crystals: Opportunities
 Photonic Crystals
 complex dielectric environment that controls the flow of radiation
 designer vacuum for the emission and absorption of radiation
 Passive devices
 dielectric mirrors for antennas
 micro-resonators and waveguides
 Active devices
 low-threshold nonlinear devices
 microlasers and amplifiers
 efficient thermal sources of light
 Integrated optics
 controlled miniaturisation
 pulse sculpturing
Defect-Mode Photonic Crystal Microlaser
Photonic Crystal Cavity formed by a point defect
O. Painter et. al., Science (1999)
Photonic Crystals Based Light Bulbs
C. Cornelius, J. Dowling, PRA 59, 4736 (1999)
“Modification of Planck blackbody radiation by photonic band-gap structures”
3D Complete Photonic Band Gap
Suppress blackbody radiation in the infrared and redirect and enhance thermal energy into visible
Solid Tungsten Filament
3D Tungsten Photonic
Crystal Filament
S. Y. Lin et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. (2003)
 Light bulb efficiency may raise from 5 percent to 60 percent
Solar Cell Applications
– Funneling of thermal radiation of larger wavelength (orange area) to thermal radiation
of shorter wavelength (grey area).
– Spectral and angular control over the thermal radiation.
Foundations of Future CI
Cavity all-optical transistor
Iin
Photonic crystal all-optical transistor
Iout
χ (3)
IH
H.M. Gibbs et. al, PRL 36, 1135 (1976)
 Fundamental Limitations
 switching time • switching intensity =
constant
 Incoherent character of the switching
 dissipated power
 Operating Parameters




Holding power:
5 mW
Switching power: 3 µW
Switching time:
1-0.5 ns
Size:
500 m
Pump Laser
Probe Laser
M. Florescu and S. John, PRA 69, 053810 (2004).
 Operating Parameters
 Holding power:
 Switching power:
 Switching time:
 Size:
10-100 nW
50-500 pW
< 1 ps
20 m
Single Atom Switching Effect
 Photonic Crystals versus Ordinary Vacuum

Positive population inversion

Switching behaviour of the atomic inversion
M. Florescu and S. John, PRA 64, 033801 (2001)
Quantum Optics in Photonic Crystals
 Long temporal separation between incident laser photons
 Fast frequency variations of the photonic DOS


Band-edge enhancement of the Lamb shift
Vacuum Rabi splitting
T. Yoshie et al. , Nature, 2004.
Foundations for Future CI:
Single Photon Sources
 Enabling Linear Optical Quantum Computing and Quantum Cryptography




fully deterministic pumping mechanism
very fast triggering mechanism
accelerated spontaneous emission
PBG architecture design to achieve
prescribed DOS at the ion position
M. Florescu et al., EPL 69, 945 (2005)
CI Enabled Photonic Crystal Design (I)
Photo-resist layer exposed to multiple laser beam interference
that produce a periodic intensity pattern
10 m

Four laser beams interfere to form a
3D periodic intensity pattern
O. Toader, et al., PRL 92, 043905 (2004)
3D photonic crystals fabricated
using holographic lithography
M. Campell et al. Nature, 404, 53 (2000)
CI Enabled Photonic Crystal Design (II)
O. Toader & S. John, Science (2001)
CI Enabled Photonic Crystal Design (III)
S. Kennedy et al., Nano Letters (2002)
Multi-Physics Problem:
Photonic Crystal Radiant Energy Transfer
Photonic Crystals
Optical Properties
Rethermalization
Processes:
Transport
Properties:
Photons
Electrons
Phonons
Metallic (Dielectric)
Backbone
Electronic
Characterization
Photons
Electrons
Phonons
Summary
Photonic Crystals: Photonic analogues of semiconductors that
control the flow of light
PBG materials: Integrated optical micro-circuits
with complete light localization
Designer Vacuum:
Frequency selective control of
spontaneous and thermal emission
enables novel active devices
Potential to Enable Future CI:
Single photon source for LOQC
All-optical micro-transistors
CI Enabled Photonic Crystal Research and Technology:
Photonic “materials by design”
Multiphysics and multiscale analysis