2-DIMENSIONAL PHOTONIC-CRYSTAL VERTICAL-CAVITY ARRAY FOR NONLINEAR-OPTICAL IMAGE-PROCESSING

We investigate the electromagnetic properties of a two-dimensional (2- D) photonic-crystal array of vertical cavities for use in nonlinear op tical image processing. We determine the 2-D photonic band structure o f the array, and we discuss how it is influenced by the degree of inte raction between cavities. We study the properties of defects in the 2- D lattice and show that neighboring cavities interact through their ov erlapping wave functions. This interaction can be used to produce near est-neighbor nonlinear Boolean functions such as AND, OR, and XOR, whi ch are useful for optical image processing. We demonstrate the use of 2-D photonic bandgap structures for image processing by removing noise from a sample image with a nearest-neighbor AND function. (C) 1998 Op tical Society of America.