General electromagnetic density of modes for a one-dimensional photonic crystal

Abstract

In this paper, we present more general, exact, and concise expressions for calculating the electromagnetic density of modes (EDOM) in one dimension photonic crystal (superlattice) for E and H polarizations. The expression is used for numerical computation of the EDOM in the lower-index (dielectric constant) layer. We discuss the difference between the EDOM in high- and low-index layers as due to the presence of waveguiding modes and evanescent-excited Bloch modes in the higher-index layer. Two methods of computation are presented to compute the EDOM in the lower-index layer. We suggest the possibility of using the EDOM to establish population inversion, which may be useful for higher-frequency lasers (e.g., x rays) and control any radiative processes. We also elaborate on the limitations of the results of Alvarado Rodriguez et al. as due to the approximation used in the evaluation of partial differentialomega/ partial differentialk(y,z) for nabla(k)omega and comment on the limitations of the one-dimensional EDOM expression of Bendickson et al.