Photonic band gap materials: a new frontier in quantum and nonlinear optics

Summary form only given. Since the invention of the laser, the field of photonics has progressed through the development of engineered materials which mold the flow of light. Photonic band gap (PBG) materials are a new class of dielectrics which facilitate the micromanipulation of photons in much the same way that the semiconductor manipulates the flow of electrons. A PBG material exhibits a complete three-dimensional gap to photons in the same way that a semiconductor has a band gap for electrons. In this talk, I discuss some recently proposed schemes for microfabricating large scale 3D PBG materials with complete gaps in the near-infrared spectrum using "inverted opals" and by glancing angle deposition.