Abstract:
Over the last few decades Photonic Crystals (PhCs) have enjoyed immense attention from
engineers, physicists and other interested parties due to its unique characteristics and its
promise to revolutionize optical communication technologies. PhCs are made of dielectric
materials periodic in one, two, or three dimensions and can exhibit photonic band gaps to
certain frequencies. Therefore, it can be used to trap or guide “light” of certain frequencies
within it. This thesis uses this very idea to construct a Photonic Crystal Slab (PCS) of finite
thickness using photonic band gap maps, where air holes are introduced to create the
periodicity. Cavity arrays are formed by manipulating the properties of certain air holes and
the interactions between the modes within the cavity are analyzed. Two types of cavities are
formed- one consisting of similar defects and one consisting of dissimilar defects. The
software used for this thesis is Rsoft CAD Suit and the simulation tools used are
BandSOLVE and FullWAVE.
