Optical Conductance of Waveguides Built into Photonic Crystals

M. ABRAHAM; M. LESTER

Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Workshop; Ninth J. J. Giambiagi Winter School Part B: From the nano to the macro scale: electromagnetic response of complex structures; 2007

The concept of Optical Conductance is introduced in order to characterize the transport properties of waveguides built into photonic crystals. The conductance is simply given by the integral of the transmission cross section as a function of the incoming angle. This concept is illustrated by exact calculations of the light-guiding properties of a waveguide built into a photonic crystal slab based on a square lattice of dielectric cylinders in air. In analogy with their electronic counterparts, the optical conductance of a waveguide is quantized and thus provides a direct measure of the number of guided modes supported by the system.