OBSERVATION OF LEAKY SLAB MODES IN AN AIR-BRIDGED SEMICONDUCTOR WAVE-GUIDE WITH A 2-DIMENSIONAL PHOTONIC LATTICE

An air-bridged, 120-nm-thick semiconductor slab with a two-dimensional (2D) square array of through holes on a 480 nm pitch (Lambda) was fab ricated using selective wet etching techniques. The second order photo nic resonances of the structure were studied by comparing broadband op tical scattering data with numerical solutions of Maxwell's equations. Features observed In these spectra over a 1200 cm(-1) range, near 950 0 cm(-1), indicate that the 2D texture splits the energy degeneracy of slab modes with propagation constants {+/-2 pi/Lambda,0} and {0,+/-2 pi/Lambda} by as much as 14%. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.