Hamiltonian optics of nonuniform photonic crystals

The passage of light through slowly varying nonuniform photonic crystal str uctures is treated using Hamiltonian optics. The approach allows the invers e design of complex and highly compact optical elements as well as providin g insight and an appealing physical picture. It can also be used to treat t he trapping and deflection of light at distributed defects in one- and two- dimensional (2-D) crystals, and to study the frequency dependent time delay in chirped one-dimensional (1-D) fiber Bragg gratings (FBG's).