Resonant Photons in Nanophotonic Quantum Well Heterostructures

Abstract

In this work, we propose to study the resonant photonic states in a new class of photonic crystal heterostructures, which can be used to make smaller and faster optoelectronic devices. Photonic quantum well (PQW) heterostructures are made from two different photonic crystals A and B. The structure is denoted as A/B/A/B/A, where the core crystal A is sandwiched between two B crystals. If crystals A and B are chosen so that the upper band edge of A lies within the gap of B, the resulting band structure acts as a double potential barrier for photons. Here we have obtained an expression for the transmission coefficient of the PQW heterostructure using the transfer matrix method, and have found that there are resonant states within the well. We have shown that the number of resonant states can be controlled by varying parameters of crystals A and B, such as their lattice constants, indices of refraction and thicknesses. It is anticipated that the resonance states described here can be used to make new types of photonic switching devices and quantum computers.