Photonic crystals

Semi-conductor crystals for light

The smallest dielectric – lossless structures to

control whereto and how fast light flows

Femius Koenderink
Center for Nanophotonics
AMOLF, Amsterdam
[email protected]
Definition
Definition:

A photonic crystal is a periodic arrangement with a ~ λ

of a dielectric material
that exhibits strong interaction with light - large ∆ε
 Examples

1D: 2D: 3D:

Bragg Reflector Si pillar crystal Colloidal crystal
 Bragg diffraction
Bragg mirror
Antireflection coatings (Fresnel equations)

Bragg’s law:
2n average d cos(θ ) = mλ

Each succesive layer gives

phase-shifted partial reflection

Interference at Bragg’ condition

yields 100% reflection

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 Conclusions 1D stack
Light can propagate into/through 1D stacks, except around
- a stop gap around the Bragg condition
- in a frequency interval of width

standing wave in n2
n1 n2 n1 n2 n1 n2 n1

Stop gap

standing wave in n1

0 π/a
At the band edge: standing waves that stand still
In the band edge: no propagating states at all
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Frequency [ωd/2πc]

Periodicity d=d1+d2
ki=niω/c - frequency and index contrast
K sets phase increment per unit cell

exp(iKd)

Κ [π/d] M=(M1 .M2)N

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Dielectric mirror
12 layers
Reflectivity

d/λ
R arbitrarily close to 100%, independent of index contrast
(N-1) end-facet Fabry Perot fringes

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2D and 3D lattices

• Dielectric constant is periodic on a 2D/3D lattice

Bravais lattices
2D: square, hexagonal,
a2 rectangular, oblique, rhombic

a1 3D: sc, fcc, bcc, etc (14 x)

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Reciprocal lattice

Reciprocal lattice with

property

a2
Special wave vectors of
a1 scale b ~ 2π/a

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Example of reciprocal lattice vectors
Note how:

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Bloch’s theorem

Suppose we look for solutions of:

with periodic ε(r)

Bloch’s theorem says the solution must be invariant up to

a phase factor when translating over a lattice vector

Equivalent:

Phase factor Truly periodic

Note how k and k+G are really the same wave vector
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Note how k and k+G are really the same wave vector

‘Band structure’

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Folding bands of 1D system

frequency ω

2π/a 2π/a
-π/a 0 π/a
wave vector k
Bloch wave with wave vector k is equal to Bloch
wave with wave vector k+m2π/a
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Formal derivation in 3D

Wave eq:

Bloch:

Substitute and find:

The structure is that of an infinite dimensional linear problem

frequency acts as the eigenvalue

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Dispersion relation of vacuum -folded

frequency ω

2π/a
-π/a 0 π/a
wave vector k

Folded “Free dispersion relation”

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17
Nearly free dispersion

frequency ω

2π/a
-π/a 0 π/a
wave vector k
Crossing -> anticrossing upon off-diagonal coupling
Compare QM: degeneracies are lifted by perturbation
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More complicated example

FCC crystal 1st Brillouin zone (bcc cell)

close packed Wedge: irreducible part
connected spheres

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 Folded bands – almost of vacuum
Example: n=1.5 spheres, (26% air)
a/λ

1st Brillouin zone (bcc cell)

Wedge: irreducible part
k

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 Folded bands – almost of vacuum
Example: n=1.5 spheres, (26% air)

Spagghetti

Diffractive / Photonic crystal

Effective medium /
a/λ

metamaterial

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 Folded bands – almost of vacuum
Example: n=1.5 spheres, (26% air)
2n average d cos(θ ) = mλ
1/cos(θ) shift
Bragg gap at
normal incidence
to 111 planes
a/λ

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 Wider bands
Reversing air & glass to reduce the mean epsilon
a/λ

Note (1): band shifts up – lower effective index

(2): Relative gap broadens
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 Wider bands

Replacing n=1.5 by n=3.5, keeping ~ 80% air `airholes’

A true band gap FOR ALL wave vectors opens up
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Band gap for air spheres in Si

We counted all the eigenstates in the 1st Brillouin zone

Note (1) a true gap, and (2) regimes of very high state density
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Si 3D photonic crystals

1. Colloids stack in fcc crystals Vlasov/Norris Nature 2001

2. Silicon infilling with CVD Technique pioneered at UvA
3. Remove spheres (Vos & Lagendijk, 1998)
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Woodpile crystals
Silicon – repeated stacking, folding
Sandia, Kyoto

GaAs (also n=3.5) – robotics in SEM

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2D crystals
Si or GaAs membranes
Very thin (200 nm)
Kyoto, DTU, Wurzburg,…

Si posts in air (AMOLF)

Zijlstra, van der Drift, De Dood, and Polman (DIMES, FOM)
Dielectric rod structure
TM means E out of plane

Snapshots of field at band edges

(k = G/2 ) for G=X =2π/a(1,0)
G=M =2π/a(1,1)
Note the phase increment due to k

Note field concentration in air (band 2)

rod (band 1)

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Why all the effort for just a lot of math?
What we have seen so far:
• Photonic crystals diffract light, just like X-ray diffraction
• Unlike X-ray diffraction, the bandwidth is ~ 20%, not 10-4
• Light has a nontrivial band structure

What is so great:
• A nontrivial band structure means control over how
fast light travels, and how it refracts
• A true band gap expels all modes
• Complete shielding against radiative processes
• Line and point defects would be completely
shielded traps for light
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2D crystal

1. In a 2D crystal
polarization splits
into TE and TM

2. Band structure is
Photonic bandgap for in-plane k-only

3. ‘Light-line’
separates bound
from leaky

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 Line defects
0.35

crystal
modes

frequency w (units 2 p c/a)

0.3

waveguide
0.25
modes

crystal
0.2
modes

0.15
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
wavevector |k| (units π/a)

A single line surrounded by a full band gap guides light

Light at the line is forbidden from escaping into the crystal

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 Line defects and bends
Line defect, bend

Exceptionally tight – 90o bend

Potential for very small low-loss chips

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Measurement of guiding & bending

Sample: AIST Japan

Meas: AMOLF

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 Cavity in experiment

Free standing GaAs membrane

250 nm thick, 800 µm long, 30 µm wide Lattice spacing

1 row of holes missing a=410 nm

Pink areas: a=400 nm

Song, Noda, Asano, Akahane, Nature Materials

January 2007 35
Why a cavity ?

January 2007 36
 Simulated mode

Mode intensity
Cycle averaged |E|2

Mode volume 1.2 (λ/nGaAs)3

Exceptionally small cavity

Very high Q, up to 106

January 2007 37
 Narrow cavity resonance
125 Picked up by tip
Few µm above cavity Q =(1±0.5) 105
100 Lorentz Q =88000

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Counts
50

25

0
1565.0 1565.2 1565.4

Tip: pulled glass fiber ~ 100 nm Wavelength (nm)

Laser: grating tunable diode laser

20 MHz linewidth (10-7 λ) around 1565 nm

January 2007 38
Refraction

k||

n1ω/c
n1 n2 n2ω/c

Generic solution steps:

1) Plane waves in each medium
2) Use k|| conservation to find allowed waves
3) Use causality to keep only outgoing waves -> refracted k
4) Match field continuity at boundary to find r and t
Folding bands of 1D system

frequency ω

2π/a 2π/a
-π/a 0 π/a
wave vector k
Bloch wave with wave vector k is equal to Bloch
wave with wave vector k+m2π/a
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Harrison’s construction

In 2D free space, the dispersion

ω=c|k| looks like a circle at any ω

Periodic system:
repeated zone-scheme brings in
new bands

At crossings: coupling splits bands

January 2007 41
 Observation of band folding

Angle resolved map of

Fluorescence from a corrugated
Waveguide

Common application: LED light extraction

January 2007 42
 Observation of band folding

Angle resolved map of

Fluorescence from a corrugated
Waveguide

Slow-light at Bragg condition – plasmonic crystal laser

January 2007 43
Measurement

Folded band structure of a surface plasmon, probed at one λ

January 2007 44
 Refraction

A single incident beam can split into multiple refracted beams

Group velocity = direction of energy flow not along k

January 2007 45
 Refraction

Superprism: exceptional sensitivity to incidence θ and λ

Supercollimation: exceptional a-sensitivity to incidence θ and λ

January 2007 46
 Super collimation

A tightly focused beam has many ∆k, and should diffract

Supercollimation: beam stays collimated because vg is flat
Note: there is no guiding defect here

Shanhui Fan APL (2003) 47

Superprisms

Application: a minute change in ω is a huge change in θ

‘Wavelength demultiplexer’ – note the negative refraction

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 Conclusions
Diffraction
• Photonic crystals diffract light, just like X-ray diffraction
• Unlike X-ray diffraction, the bandwidth is ~ 20%, not 10-4

Propagation
• Light has a nontrivial band structure – similar to e- band-structure
• Dispersion surfaces are like Fermi surfaces
• Light has polarization. Photons do not interact with photons
• Band structure controls refraction and propagation speed
• Band gap: light does not enter. No states in the crystal

Defects
• line defects guide light
• Point defects confine light for up to 106 optical cycles in a λ3 volume
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