Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Publication Date

2-9-2011

Abstract

A crystal is a periodic and repeating arrangement of atoms or molecules. Photonic crystals are structures with periodic variations in the dielectric constants that manipulate and control the properties of light propagation. Photonic crystals are analogous to semiconductor crystals with periodic potentials that are responsible for the bandgaps for electrons and holes. For electrons and holes, the periodic potential effectively determines how the charged particles propagate through the crystal under applied fields. Similarly, for photons in a photonic crystal, the periodic dielectric function can give rise to photon bandgaps that control the motion of appropriate photons through the crystal. The most complicated and possibly the most interesting photonic crystals are three-dimensional repeating structures. The main experimental work for this dissertation concerns the description of the fabrication of three-dimensional photonic crystals using a novel interferometric lithography technique. The work also describes the experimental hardware and the appropriate mathematical models for interferometric lithography. vii Additional work concerns the generation of band diagrams for three-dimensional photonic crystals using simulation and modeling. Experimental results for the transmission and reflection properties of the photonic crystals fabricated by interferometric lithography are presented and the results are compared to the simulated band diagram models. A new method for fabricating waveguides embedded in three-dimensional photonic crystals is also developed in this dissertation. This new approach to waveguide fabrication lends itself straightforwardly to mass manufacturing using standard semiconductor lithography equipment. This is in contrast to previously reported techniques that do not scale to high volume manufacturing. Photonic crystals with integrated waveguides are of particular significance due to the possibilities of guiding or confining light propagation in the photonic crystal. This is comparable to the way dopants in a semiconductor crystal can impact electronic propagation. Waveguides with photonic crystals can demonstrate non-linear optical behavior if the crystal contains material that exhibits the optical Kerr effect or a nonlinear susceptibility \u03c7(2). These non-linear photonic crystals can be used for optical computing applications. Using the novel approaches presented in this dissertation, in conjunction with additional extensions, it is possible to fabricate a wide variety of three-dimensional photonic crystals that exhibit a complete bandgap. These three-dimensional photonic crystals can contain embedded omnidirectional bandgap restricted

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Electrical Engineering

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Committee Member (Chair)

Luke, Lester

Second Committee Member

Ralph, Dawson

Third Committee Member

Sheik-Bahae, Mansoor

Fourth Committee Member

Hayat, Majeed

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