One dimensional resonant photonic crystal based on InAs/InGaAs quantum dots; structure with tunable response for optical communication applications

In this paper two resonant photonic crystals is proposed that their optical response depends not only to the modulation of the dielectric function but also to the interaction of the incident light with the crystal's internal excitations. Alternating layers made of GaAs (as the barrier layer) and InAs/InGaAs quantum dots (dipole active layer) are selected as the main building blocks of the crystals. Structural order is disturbed by adding defects. Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) is applied to evaluate the optical features of the crystals and in order to model the real situation, the roles of the effective exitonic susceptibility besides the homogenous and non-homogenous broadenings are considered in calculations. Dependence of the structures response (including width and wavelength range of the stop band and resonant modes) to the structural parameters such as layers period number, size of the slabs and homogeneity of the layers are studied at the first step. Extracting the optimum values, tunability of the optical features with external parameters such as crystal temperature and light incident angle is explored systematically. Results clearly show the great potential of the proposed crystals for applications such as all optical tunable filters, frequency dividers and switches.