Photonic Crystals Innovative Systems, Lasers and Waveguides

A photonic crystal is a periodic optical nanostructure that affects the motion of photons in much the same way that ionic lattices affect electrons in solids. Photonic crystals occur in nature in the form of structural coloration -- and, in different forms, promise to be useful in a range of applications. Photonic crystals can, in principle, find uses wherever light must be manipulated. Existing applications include thin-film optics with coatings for lenses. Two-dimensional photoniccrystal fibres are used in nonlinear devices and to guide exotic wavelengths. Three-dimensional crystals may one day be used in optical computers. This book concerns the characterisation approach of photonic crystals, photonic crystal lasers, photonic crystal waveguides and plasmonics including the introduction of innovative systems and materials. Photonic crystal materials promises to enable all-optical computer circuits and could also be used to make ultra-low-power light sources. Researchers have studied lasers from microscopic cavities in photonic crystals that act as reflectors to intensify the collisions between photons and atoms that lead to lazing, but these lasers have been optically-pumped, meaning they are driven by other lasers.