Application of Photonic Crystal

Photonic Crystal exerts a very interesting phenomenon regarding the propagation characteristic of photon. This puts the materials as one of the candidate for future material that will be used into our communication and computation systems.The application of the Photonic Crystal is according to its dimensions. As an overview, the 1-D Photonic Crystal is already commercialized and is in widespread use. The 2-D Photonic Crystal still in its early stage of commercialization with among its first product is the PC Fibre. The 3-D and multi dimensions are in its research and development stage with future prospect of its applications are being reflected.


• 1 Dimension Layer Photonic Crystal

-Colour changing paint
–High reflection coatings

The properties of Photonic Crystal (PC) which creates energy band gap for the photon whereby photon containing energy lying in the band gap cannot propagate through provide a way to construct material with very high reflectivity, loss-less waveguide, lasers cavity and many other applications for optical communication.


• 2 Dimension Layer Photonic Crystal

-Photonic Crystal Fibre

It is use in many applications such as medical. Most optical fibres being used in medical treatment especially the IR fibres have large attenuation when bent. They also have large intrinsic losses due to in homogeneities of the material and surface irregularity. The use of photonic crystal may provide a way around this problem.

• 3 Dimension Layer Photonic Crystal

3D Photonic Crystal offer and may exert many additional features compared to the lower dimension PC. These new feature may lead to new technology and may even be a breakthrough such when semiconductor material which leads to transistor was discovered. But the 3D Photonic Crystal is still far from any practical application. Until some technological difficulties are resolved this technology still lies the future.