Photonic crystals: “even thin is functional”

Photonic crystals are the nanostructures that can manipulate photons by means of an energy gap, similar to how the semiconductors in computer chips manipulate electronic current. It was always thought that photonic crystals should be thick and bulky to be functional. Scientists from the University of Tokyo, the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, the Kyoto Institute of Technology and the University of Twente discovered that even very thin 3D photonic band gap crystals are powerful devices to strongly control the flow of light. The new insights lead to design rules for new optoelectronic devices for efficient telecommunication and computers, and thin solar cells.

Paper

Reflectivity of three-dimensional GaAs photonic band-gap crystals of finite thickness Physical Review B

Takeyoshi Tajiri, Shun Takahashi, Cornelis A. M. Harteveld, Yasuhiko Arakawa, Satoshi Iwamoto, and Willem L. Vos

Related link