Abstract

It is now some time since Yablonovitch proposed the optical analogue of the electron band gap: periodically structured dielectrics may totally exclude light in certain frequency ranges. At the time this concept of a ‘phtonc insulator’ provoked a furore and not a little disbelieve, but the concept is now an accepted one and the attention of the community is turning to how we can exploit the electron-photon analogy to control photons with the same facility as we do electrons. We may want to build better lasers, or to exploit more effectively use of light in communication, pushing the boundary of opto-electronics more in favour of the optical component of the subject.

© 1996 IEEE