Characteristics of two-dimensional AlGaAs photonic crystals in a waveguide configuration for test devices

Recently, two-dimensional (2D) photonic bandgap crystals (PBCs) of III-V compound semiconductors have attracted increasing interest for potential in application, in particular, for developing remarkably-miniaturized planar photonic circuits based on active and passive components such as micro-cavity light emitter, optical switch and straight-bent-coupling waveguide. Up until now, however, very few experimental works have been done. We report microfabrication of 2D photonic-crystal test devices with various air-rod patterns for studying in detail optical propagation characteristics for designing PBC-based planar photonic circuits.