Photonic band gap templating using optical interference lithography

Improvement of transmission properties through two-bend resonance by holographic design for a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide

We have investigated the transmission properties of a photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) formed by holographic lithography for the first time with a two-dimensional (2D) triangular holographic photonic crystal (PhC) including a line defect with two 60 masculine bends. Calculations have shown that for this PCW high transmission (>90%) through sharp corners can be obtained in a wide frequency range from 0.298 to 0.310 (omega alpha/2pi c) with the relative band gap of 4% when the dielectric contrast is 7.6:1. As far as we know, this result should be the widest frequency range with high transmission (>90%) in the waveguide of similar 2D triangular PhCs ever reported. We have also found that the specific holographic designs of PhC have strong influence on the resonance between the two waveguide bends, and thus this fact can be used as an effective means to improve the transmission property of 2D holographic PCW. In addition to the simplicity and low cost of holographic fabrication of PhCs, these features may reveal the possibly better guiding ability of holographic PCW than the conventional waveguide and the promising potential of the former in the application of photonic integrated circuits.

Five-beam interference pattern controlled through phases and wave vectors for diamondlike photonic crystals

We demonstrate, for what is believed to be the first time, the design of diamondlike photonic crystals made by holographic lithography based on five-beam interference. All five beams are launched from the same half-space, and the exposure can easily be realized by a single diffractive optical element. The photonic structure can be constructed through the translation of the interference pattern controlled by the phase shift of laser beams. The proposed holographic lithography is capable of creating series photonic crystals with large photonic bandgaps by adjusting the phase and the wave vector of interfering beams.

Holographic design and band gap evolution of photonic crystals formed with five-beam symmetric umbrella configuration

We propose a holographic design of five-beam symmetric umbrella configuration, where there are a central beam and four ambient beams symmetrically scattered around the central one with the same apex angle, for fabrication of three-dimensional photonic crystals with tetragonal or cubic symmetries, and systematically analyzed the band gap properties of resultant photonic crystals when the apex angle is continuously increased. Our calculations reveal that large complete photonic band gaps exist in a wide range of apex angle for a relatively low refractive index contrast. Specifically, the face-centered cubic structure with a relative band gap of 25.1% for epsilon = 11.9 can be obtained with this recording geometry conveniently where all the beams are incident from the same half-space. These results will provide us with more understanding of this important recording geometry and give guidelines to its use in experiments.

Photonic band-gap formation by optical-phase-mask lithography

We demonstrate an approach for fabricating photonic crystals with large three-dimensional photonic band gaps (PBG's) using single-exposure, single-beam, optical interference lithography based on diffraction of light through an optical phase mask. The optical phase mask (OPM) consists of two orthogonally oriented binary gratings joined by a thin, solid layer of homogeneous material. Illuminating the phase mask with a normally incident beam produces a five-beam diffraction pattern which can be used to expose a suitable photoresist and produce a photonic crystal template. Optical-phase-mask Lithography (OPML) is a major simplification from the previously considered multibeam holographic lithography of photonic crystals. The diffracted five-beam intensity pattern exhibits isointensity surfaces corresponding to a diamondlike (face-centered-cubic) structure, with high intensity contrast. When the isointensity surfaces in the interference patterns define a silicon-air boundary in the resulting photonic crystal, with dielectric contrast 11.9 to 1, the optimized PBG is approximately 24% of the gap center frequency. The ideal index contrast for the OPM is in the range of 1.7-2.3. Below this range, the intensity contrast of the diffraction pattern becomes too weak. Above this range, the diffraction pattern may become too sensitive to structural imperfections of the OPM. When combined with recently demonstrated polymer-to-silicon replication methods, OPML provides a highly efficient approach, of unprecedented simplicity, for the mass production of large-scale three-dimensional photonic band-gap materials.