Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Fabrication And Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides And Cavities
Published on: November 30, 2012
Scattering at sidewall roughness in photonic crystal slabs
Wim Bogaerts1, Peter Bienstman, Roel Baets
1Department of Information Technology, Ghent University-Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000 Gent, Belgium. wim.bogaerts@intec.rug.ac.be
Abstract:
We have simulated the effect of sidewall roughness in photonic-crystallike structures with different vertical refractive-index contrast. We treated the scattering off a sidewall irregularity as a radiating dipole excited by the incident waveguide mode. We show that the loss that is due to this scattering is significantly larger for structures with a low refractive-index contrast (such as GaAs/AlGaAs waveguides) than for structures with a high vertical index contrast (such as silicon-on-insulators and membranes).
Related Concept Videos
X-ray Crystallography
Diffraction
Diffraction is the change in the direction of travel experienced by an electromagnetic wave when it encounters a physical barrier whose dimensions are comparable to those of the wavelength of the light. X-rays are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths about as long as the distance between neighboring...
Imperfections in Crystal Structure: Point, Line and Plane Defects

