Computational study and analysis of structural imperfections in 1D and 2D photonic crystals

Dielectric reflectors that are periodic in one or two dimensions, also known as 1D and 2D photonic crystals, have been widely studied for many potential applications due to the presence of wavelength-tunable photonic bandgaps. However, the unique optical behavior of photonic crystals is based on theoretical models of perfect analogues. Little is known about the practical effects of dielectric imperfections on their technologically useful optical properties. In order to address this issue, a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) code is employed to study the effect of three specific dielectric imperfections in 1D and 2D photonic crystals. The first imperfection investigated is dielectric interfacial roughness in quarter-wave tuned ID photonic crystals at normal incidence. This study reveals that the reflectivity of some roughened photonic crystal configurations can change up to 50% at the center of the bandgap for RMS roughness values around 20% of the characteristic periodicity of the crystal. However, this reflectivity change can be mitigated by increasing the index contrast and/or the number of bilayers in the crystal. In order to explain these results, the homogenization approximation, which is usually applied to single rough surfaces, is applied to the quarter-wave stacks.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Maskaly, Karlene Rosera

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• W. Craig Carter and Yoel Fink.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33403

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33403