Beaming of light and enhanced transmission via surface modes of photonic crystals

Abstract

We report beaming and enhanced transmission of electromagnetic waves by use of surface corrugated photonic crystals. The modes of a finite-size photonic crystal composed of dielectric rods in free space have been analyzed by the plane-wave expansion method. We show the existence of surface propagating modes when the surface of the finite-size photonic crystal is corrugated. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that the transmission through photonic crystal waveguides can be substantially increased by the existence of surface propagating modes at the input surface. In addition, the power emitted from the photonic crystal waveguide is confined to a narrow angular region when an appropriate surface corrugation is added to the output surface of the photonic crystal.