The progression towards faster communication systems requires a decrease in the amount of interconnect length between the emitter and the detector of the signal. More and more processing of an optical signal will therefore need to be performed at the microscopic level rather than at the macroscopic network level.
Photonic crystals provide an exciting pathway towards such processing capabilities.
Photonic crystals have been successfully fabricated and used as filtering devices at communication wavelengths. The focus of my research is on the progression from passive photonic crystals that control and guide light, to active photonic crystal devices that directly affect the spontaneous and stimulated emission of light. Such control has the potential of vastly improving the performance of many optoelectronic devices. Copyright 1999 by Alexei A. Erchak. No part of this webpage may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.