<title>Measurement of losses in planar photonic crystals</title>

Abstract

Planar photonic crystal structures are a new way to achieve the confinement and guiding of light in an optical circuit. Acceptably low levels of optical loss will be key to developing this technology into commercially viable devices. Meaningful measurement of the loss of these devices is complicated by their reduced size and their optical model structure. To date no satisfactory loss measurement of these waveguides has been made. We analyze the challenges to be reached that will lead to accurate and quantitative measurements.