Applications of planar photonic crystals

Photonic crystals came to the fore in the early 90´s due to their ability to confine light and control its flow to an unprecedented degree. The field has since made major technological advances and has evolved from a scientific curiosity to the stage where many interesting applications can be considered. The presence of photonic crystals is now felt across the entire photonics spectrum and any major photonics conference will feature them in a variety of sessions, ranging from LEDs for light extraction to solar cells for light trapping, to photonic circuits for low power optical switching and modulation, to enhanced nonlinear effects, and to strong confinement effects for optical biosensing and for quantum optics. I will provide the conceptual background for these applications.