Analysis and Design of Photonic Band Gap Devices: A Review

Photonic BandGap (PBG) crystals are able to overcome the typical integration limits of traditional optical circuits, allowing a scale of integration similar to the electronic ULSI. According to their geometrical characteristics, photonic crystals inhibit the light propagation in one or more directions, depending on the working frequency: if so, a band gap exists, i.e. a frequency range in which the wave cannot propagate. Moreover the introduction of defects inside the periodical structure of a photonic crystal determines the forming of photonic states located in the gap. In this paper, after a brief description of operation principle of photonic crystals, we present a review of the most important photonic crystals devices, describing, in particular, the main steps required to model and design resonant cavities and particle accelerators.