Design and analysis of photonic crystal for performance enhancement of carbon nanotube based infrared sensors

The photonic crystals of parylene and silicon dielectric media for infrared light localization are analyzed in this paper. The Bloch's theorem is adopted to calculate the infrared light transmission in two-dimensional photonic crystal. First, the band gap diagrams for photonic crystal of parylene and silicon are calculated and compared respectively. It is revealed that the photonic crystal of parylene rods in air has a bigger band gap for TM than that for TE mode. In the photonic crystal of air hole in dielectric slab, the stop band width for TE mode is bigger than that for TM wave, and the band gap of silicon photonic crystal is more obvious than that of parylene slab. The energy distribution and boundary condition of electrical field in the interface of dielectric media are considered to be responsible for the reason of the band gap differences for TE and TM wave. Second, the band gap vs. air hole radius of parylene and silicon photonic crystal is obtained, which shows the relationship of stop band width vs. air hole radius. Third, the infrared light localization in point defect is found, and the electrical field profiles for both parylene and silicon photonic crystals are shown. The central point defect in photonic crystal acts as a resonant cavity to confine infrared light and reach high photon density. Finally, the energy confinement efficiency vs. lattice arrangement of photonic crystal is calculated, which can be useful for photonic crystal design and fabrication. © 2010 IEEE.