Abstract

There is considerable current interest in using photonic-band-gap structures to control spontaneous emission and mode density in miniature laser resonators. In this paper, the photonic band structure and possible applications of certain novel stationary resonant modes that occur within strongly modulated periodic dielectric films are reported. The structure analyzed (Fig. 1) consists of lines of high-index dielectric on a low-index substrate, the rest of the structure being air. This provides an extremely high modulation depth of the refractive index in the plane. Although there are gaps in the waveguiding layer, these are below the resolution limit of light in the air and the substrate, permitting strongly guided modes to be supported. These modes can be compared with those that would occur in a single-mode asymmetric slab waveguide with a homogeneous guiding layer of the same average index.

© 1995 Optical Society of America