Photonic-Crystal-to-Multilayer Transformation for Designing and Measuring 3-D Photonic Crystal

The Photonic-Crystal-to-Multilayer-Transformation (PCMT) developed in this paper provides a novel and rapid tool for analyzing and designing photonic crystals. The PCMT method transfers a complicated 3-D photonic crystal to a 1-D multilayer equivalent. Then, the optical properties can be easily calculated by Fresnel´s equation. This method reduces the amount of computing resource and results in excellent agreement with the band theory of photonic crystals. We used the PCMT method to design an opal-based photonic crystal, which was then fabricated using self-assembly approach. Practically, it is challenging to fabricate a perfect and infinite photonic crystal. Therefore, the determination of the crystal thickness is important. The PCMT is also a non-destructive testing tool. It can estimate the crystal thickness by determining the transmission or reflection coefficient. In this aspect, the PCMT will be a useful and reliable tool in designing and measuring photonic crystals.