Analysis of Optical Characteristics of Holey Photonic Crystals with Extended Coupled-Mode Formalism

We present a new approach for analysis of optical properties of holey photonic crystal devices. Our approach is based on the Extended coupled-mode formalism, developed for analysis of infinite photonic crystal lattices (arrays of identical coupled waveguides / lasers) and superlattices (periodic sequences of different coupled waveguides / lasers). Our method allows for a fast (tens of seconds) calculation of array modes and photonic band structure of large holey photonic devices. It also allows an analytical prediction of some optical properties of those devices, such as number of photonic bands, their upper and lower limits and bandwidth. Our computations show close agreement between the results, acquired with our new approach on the one hand and the solution of Helmholtz equation (used as a benchmark) on the other hand.