THEORETICAL INVESTIGATION OF FABRICATION-RELATED DISORDER ON THE PROPERTIES OF PHOTONIC CRYSTALS

How various deviations in perfect photonic crystals, which may arise d uring fabrication, can affect the size of photonic band gaps is invest igated theoretically. The emphasis is on determining the effects of mi salignment of basic structural elements and overall surface roughness, because of their general fabrication relevance. As an example, calcul ations on a newly proposed three-dimensional photonic crystal are perf ormed. It is shown that the size of the gap is tolerant to significant amounts of deviation from the perfect structure. (C) 1995 American In stitute of Physics.