Mode interactions in photonic crystal nano-cavity arrays

Abstract

Over the last few decades Photonic Crystals (PhCs) have enjoyed immense attention from engineers, physicists and other interested parties due to its unique characteristics and its promise to revolutionize optical communication technologies. PhCs are made of dielectric materials periodic in one, two, or three dimensions and can exhibit photonic band gaps to certain frequencies. Therefore, it can be used to trap or guide “light” of certain frequencies within it. This thesis uses this very idea to construct a Photonic Crystal Slab (PCS) of finite thickness using photonic band gap maps, where air holes are introduced to create the periodicity. Cavity arrays are formed by manipulating the properties of certain air holes and the interactions between the modes within the cavity are analyzed. Two types of cavities are formed- one consisting of similar defects and one consisting of dissimilar defects. The software used for this thesis is Rsoft CAD Suit and the simulation tools used are BandSOLVE and FullWAVE.