Patent ID: 7498574

Claim:
A photonic crystal device comprising: a semiconductor material layer capable of being coupled to an energy source for introducing energy to said semiconductor material layer; a dielectric material layer overlaying the semiconductor material layer; and conductive material layer overlaying the dielectric material layer, and including periodically distributed surface features, wherein the device is adapted to emit and/or absorb electromagnetic energy having spectral characteristics determined at least in part by parameters of said periodically distributed surface features, wherein the periodically distributed surface features comprise an array of holes, and holes individually extending through at least a portion of the conductive material layer, and wherein said holes are at least partially filled with a material selected from a group consisting of a dielectric material, a non-linear optical material, a liquid crystal material, a piezoelectric material, a pyroelectric material, and a ferroelectric material; and wherein said periodically distributed surface features are distributed in a geometry selected from a group of regular geometry distributions consisting of parallelogram and hexagon, and quasi-regular geometry distributions consisting of Archimedean tiling.