Abstract
The optical properties of slab-like photonic crystals are often discussed on the basis of effective index (EI) approximations, where a 2-D effective refractive index profile replaces the actual 3-D structure. Our aim is to assess this approximation by analogous steps that reduce finite 2-D waveguide Bragg-gratings (to be seen as sections through 3-D PC slabs and membranes) to 1-D problems, which are tractable by common transfer matrix methods. Application of the EI method is disputable in particular in cases where locally no guided modes are supported, as in the holes of a PC membrane. A variational procedure permits to derive suitable effective permittivities even in these cases. Depending on the structural properties, these values can well turn out to be lower than one, or even be negative. Both the “standard” and the variational procedures are compared with reference data, generated by a rigorous 2-D Helmholtz solver, for a series of example structures.
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Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the Dutch Technology foundation (BSIK / NanoNed project TOE.7143). The authors thank Brenny van Groesen, Hugo Hoekstra, and Remco Stoffer for many fruitful discussions.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Hammer, M., Ivanova, O.V. Effective index approximations of photonic crystal slabs: a 2-to-1-D assessment. Opt Quant Electron 41, 267–283 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-009-9349-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-009-9349-3