OMNIDIRECTIONAL FILTERING BASED ON ZERO-AVERAGED REFRACTIVE INDEX GAP IN PHOTONIC QUANTUM WELL STRUCTURES

Abstract

A photonic quantum well (PQW) structure based on the zero-averaged refractive index gap is constructed and the transmission properties are investigated. Quantized confined photonic states resulting from the photonic confinement effect are observed. We find that the resonant transmissions are not only weakly dependent on the incident angle but also insensitive to polarization of light. More importantly, the number of the confined photonic states can be controlled by simply adjusting the cell number of the well photonic crystal. It is shown that strong field localization is found when the well photonic crystal consists of positive-index material or single negative material. Particularly for the PQW structure containing single negative material, the field in the well region can be highly enhanced by modulating the size of the well photonic crystal. These peculiar features make this PQW structure superior to the conventional PQW structure in potential applications such as omnidirectional filtering and optical bistable switching.