Difference between penetration and damping lengths in photonic crystal mirrors

Christophe Sauvan (1) , Jean-Paul Hugonin (1) , Philippe Lalanne (1)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Naphel

Different mirror geometries in two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs are studied with fully vectorial calculations. We compare their optical properties and, in particular, we show that, for heterostructure mirrors, the penetration length associated with the delay induced by distributed reflection is not correlated with the characteristic damping length of the electromagnetic energy distribution in the mirror. This unexpected result evidences that the usual trade-off between short damping lengths and large penetration lengths that is classically encountered in distributed Bragg reflectors can be overcome with carefully designed photonic crystal structures.

Domaines: Optique / photonique; Optique [physics.optics]

Christophe Sauvan, Jean-Paul Hugonin, Philippe Lalanne. Difference between penetration and damping lengths in photonic crystal mirrors. Applied Physics Letters, 2009, 95 (21), pp.211101. ⟨10.1063/1.3266840⟩. ⟨hal-00570607⟩