GUIDED MODE ANALYSIS, AND FABRICATION OF A 2-DIMENSIONAL VISIBLE PHOTONIC BAND-STRUCTURE CONFINED WITHIN A PLANAR SEMICONDUCTOR WAVE-GUIDE

In this paper, we present a graphical method for calculating the guide d Bloch modes supported by a 2-dimensional photonic lattice etched int o a planar waveguide structure. We combine a 3-dimensional plane wave analysis with standard waveguide theory to determine the broadband tra nsmission characteristics of waveguiding PEG devices away from the pri mary band gap region, and demonstrate the suppression of normal wavegu ide modes within the band gap region. In addition, we demonstrate the successful fabrication of a waveguiding photonic band structure with a polarisation dependent band gap centred around 632.8 nm in the visibl e region of the spectrum. This nano-structure consists of a triangular array of air holes etched through the cladding and core of a silicon nitride waveguide. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.