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Experiment 6: Simulations of Photonic Crystal

Structures
Apoorvi Singh(2011EE10444),Kishlay Kushwaha(2012EE10459), Shubham Bhardwaj(2012EE10480)

I. O BJECTIVE
The objective of this experiment is to do simulations of photonic crystal structures. The experiment involves setting
up of a simulation code to calculate the first four bands for both TE and TM polariations and plotting dielectric
function,dispersion diagram,z-component of electric and magnetic fields, time-averaged electric field density and
magnitude of group velocities.
II. T YPE OF P HOTONIC C RYSTAL
The type of photonic crystal under consideration is a triangular lattice of air holes (of radius 0.26) in a dielectric
medium with a relative permittivity of 12.6.
III. O BSERVATIONS
A. Dielectric Function with Five Periods in Each Lattice Direction
The plot obtained is shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1. Dielectric Function with Five Periods in Each Lattice Direction

B. Plot of Dispersion Diagram

Plots of dispersion diagrams for the TE and TM Modes are shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2. Dispersion Diagrams for TE Mode and TM Mode

A band gap is obtained between band 1 and band 2 in the TE case, but no band gap is observed for the TM
case.

C. Plot of Ez for TM Polarization

The plots for the four bands are shown in Figure 3 to Figure 6.

Figure 3. Band 1, Ez for TM Polarization

Figure 4. Band 2, Ez for TM Polarization

Figure 5. Band 3, Ez for TM Polarization

Figure 6. Band 4, Ez for TM Polarization

D. Plot of Hz for TE Polarization

The plots for the four bands are shown from Figure 7 to Figure 10.

Figure 7. Band 1, Hz for TE Polarization

Figure 8. Band 2, Hz for TE Polarization

Figure 9. Band 3, Hz for TE Polarization

Figure 10. Band 4, Hz for TE Polarization

E. Plots of Time-Averaged Electric Field Energy Density

The time-averaged electric field energy density plots for the four bands at the Gamma,K and M reciprocal points
are shown in Figures 11 to 18.

Figure 11. Gamma, Band 1

Figure 12. Gamma, Band 2

Figure 13. Gamma, Band 3

Figure 14. Gamma, Band 4

Figure 15. K, Band 1

Figure 16. K, Band 2

Figure 17. M, Band 1

Figure 18. M, Band 2

F. Plot of Magnitude of Group Velocities at All K-Points

Figure 19. Group Velocity Magnitude at all K-Points

It can be seen from Figure 19 that the velocity magnitude decreases and even drops to zero at three points for
bands 1,2 and 4, and at four points for band 3. This shows it is possible to dramatically slow down light propagation
in photonic crystals. This slow-light effect is practically useful in optical buffering and advanced time domain signal
processing. It is also useful for short pulse transmission because of wide bandwidth and low dispersion.

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IV. I NFERENCE

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V. S OURCE C ODE
(set! num-bands 4)
//indicates that four bands (eigenstates) are calculated at each k point.
(set! k-points (list (vector3 0 0 0) ; Gamma 1
(vector3 0 0.5 0) ; X6
(vector3 (/ -3) (/ 3) 0) ; M
(vector3 0 0 0))) ; Gamma
//The set of k-points (Bloch wavevectors) at which we want to compute the bands is set here. It is set to the
corners of the irreducible Brillouin zone of a square lattice.,Gamma,X,M and Gamma again.
(set! k-points (interpolate 4 k-points))
//This facilitates us to see a continuous band structure by computing the bands at intermediate points, through
linear interpolation.
(set! geometry (list (make block (center 0 0 0) (material (make dielectric (epsilon 12.6))) (size 1 1 1))
(make cylinder (center 0 0 0) (radius 0.26) (height infinity)(material (make dielectric (epsilon 1))))))
//A unit cube of a dielectric material with relative permittivity 12.6 with a spherical air hole of radius 0.26 at its
center, the whole thing centered at (0,0,0)
(set! geometry-lattice (make lattice (size 1 1 no-size)
//While defining the size of the unit cell, the third dimension is specified to be no-size to reduce the dimensionality
of the system.
(basis1 (/ (sqrt 3) 2) 0.5)
(basis2 (/ (sqrt 3) 2) -0.5)))
(set! resolution 32)
//This increases the resolution from the default 10 pixels/lattice-unit to the specified value of 32.
(run display-group-velocities)
// To display group velocities
mpb pc.ctl > pc.out
//To run calculation and direct the output to a point
h5topng -S 3 epsilon.h5
// To look at the dielectric function by converting h5 file into png
mpb-data -r -m 5 -n 32 epsilon.h5
//The cell is rectified, expanded to five periods in each direction, and the resolution is fixed to 32 pixels per a.
h5topng epsilon.h5:data-new
grep tefreqs pc.out > pc.te.dat
//selecting TE frequencies in a separate file
grep Gap pc.out
//Referring to band gap
3. mpb-data -r -m 5 -n 32 h.k16.b01.z.te.h5
h5topng -C epsilon.h5:data-new -c bluered -Z -d z.r-new h.k16.b01.z.te.h5
//Running mpb-data on the field output files, then viewing results by running h5topng
//-c :to superimpose black contours of dielectric function over fields
//-c bluered: for using a blue-white-red color table
//-z: for centering the color scale at zero (white)
//-d : for specifying the data set name for all of the files at once
(run (output-at-kpoint (vector3 (/ -3) (/ 3) 0) output-dpwr))
4. energy density
mpb-data -r -m 5 -n 32 dpwr.k11.b*.h5
h5topng -C epsilon.h5:data-new -c bluered -Z -d data-new dpwr.k11.b*.h5
//dpwr: Time-averaged electric field energy density, others as explained before