Experiment, modelling and optimisation of out of plane losses in planar photonic crystals

Summary form only given, as follows. We review out of plane loss analysis of planar photonic crystals (PPhCs) in the framework of a phenomenological model where losses are included as a complex dielectric constant in the etched material. We show that in-plane disorder effects can also be included in such a phenomenological approach. We discuss experimental results demonstrating that the optical properties of PPhCs are very robust against in-plane disorder. The amount of disorder that can exist before exceeding the intrinsic losses is evaluated. Finally, we discuss how understanding out of plane losses allows the design of vertical guiding structures optimised for a given technological process and hole shape. Improvement by a factor 50% for the intrinsic and extrinsic contributions can be expected with respect to losses reported for currently used structures.