Plane-wave transfer-matrix method and its application to photonic crystal devices

We introduce and discuss the principle of plane-wave transfer-matrix method and its application to photonic crystal integrated optical devices. After an extensive expansion and development of its power in the past 5 years, the method has been able to handle a great variety of optical problems in photonic crystal structures and devices. These include the solution of band diagrams of photonic crystals and bound states at the surface and interface, calculation of transmission, reflection, and absorption spectra for dielectric and metallic photonic crystals, treatment of Bloch mode scattering and coupling at photonic crystal surface and interface, coupling of guided mode into and out of photonic crystal waveguides, and transmission efficiency of guided mode through photonic crystal waveguide bends.