Symmetry reduction for maximization of higher-order stop-bands in two-dimensional photonic crystals

Abstract

A large absolute higher-order stop-band is achieved in two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals of square lattice. A genetic algorithm is used to search through a large number of possible structures. In this algorithm, the unit cell is divided into a grid of square pixels and a 2D binary chromosome is assigned to each filling pattern of the pixels. An initial structure with a small higher-order stop-band is included in the initial population to accelerate the search procedure. This initial structure is formed by breaking the symmetry of the supercell of a photonic crystal having a square lattice of square dielectric rods in air. In the optimization process, the effect of reducing the symmetry of the unit cell on the photonic band-gap is investigated. A structure showing an absolute higher-order band-gap as large as 0.1522(2πc/a) is obtained, which is larger than the values reported so far for photonic stop-bands.