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Updated: Jun 11, 2026
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Using Microwave and Macroscopic Samples of Dielectric Solids to Study the Photonic Properties of Disordered Photonic Bandgap Materials
Published on: September 26, 2014
Band-edge lasers based on randomly mixed photonic crystals
Sunghwan Kim1, Sungjoon Yoon, Hyojun Seok
1Department of Physics and Astronomy & Inter-University Semiconductor Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea.
Optics Express
|July 1, 2010
Summary
Mixing two photonic crystals (PCs) creates an intermediate band structure. The photonic band-edges shift with a bowing effect, matching simulations.
Area of Science:
- Optics and Photonics
- Materials Science
Background:
- Photonic crystals (PCs) are periodic dielectric structures that control light propagation.
- Understanding the optical properties of mixed PC systems is crucial for developing new photonic devices.
Purpose of the Study:
- To experimentally investigate the band structure of a random mixture of two different photonic crystals.
- To analyze the behavior of photonic band-edges in mixed PC systems.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication and characterization of two-dimensional InGaAsP photonic band-edge lasers.
- Experimental demonstration of mixed PC systems with varying compositions.
- Comparison of experimental results with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations and virtual-crystal approximation (VCA) calculations.
Main Results:
- A random mixture of two PCs exhibits an intermediate band structure between the host PCs.
- Photonic band-edges shift monotonically with a significant bowing effect as PC composition changes.
- Experimental findings show excellent agreement with FDTD simulations and VCA model calculations, including compositional disorder.
Conclusions:
- The study confirms the formation of an intermediate band structure in mixed PC systems.
- The observed bowing effect in band-edge shifts provides insights into the optical properties of disordered photonic materials.
- The agreement between experiments and simulations validates the theoretical models for predicting the behavior of mixed PCs.
