What I Wish I Had Known, as I Searched for the First 3d Photonic Bandgap

The first 3-dimensional Photonic Bandgap was found by an Edison type search, trial-and-error, guided by physical intuition. The 4-year search was beset by pseudo-gaps and required deep physical insights to find the right geometry (diamond unit cell in a face-centered-cubic lattice). In general, the optimization problem is exacerbated by the reality that any geometrical design could have millions of design parameters that define a desirable shape.

Nonetheless, there do exist mathematical techniques for 3d geometry optimization, which efficiently optimize any type of electromagnetic function. In this presentation, I will provide some examples, including “Silicon Photonics” couplers, optical antennas, solar cell surface textures, etc.

Speaker: Eli Yablonovitch, UC Berkeley