Photonic band gap materials: Technology, applications and challenges

摘要

Photonic band gap (PBG) materials are periodic dielectric structures that forbid propagation of electromagnetic waves in a certain frequency range. They are able to engineer the most fundamental properties of electromagnetic waves, such as the laws of refraction, diffraction and emission of light from atoms. Such PBG materials not only open tip a variety of possible applications, but also give rise to new physics. Unlike electronic micro-cavity, optical waveguides in a PBG microchip can simultaneously conduct hundreds of wavelength channels of information in a three-dimensional circuit path. In this article we discuss some aspects of PBG materials and their unusual properties, which provide a foundation for novel practical applications ranging from clinical medicine to information technology.