Date of Award

Spring 2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Electrical Engineering

Committee Director

Sacharia Albin

Committee Member

Vijayan Asari

Committee Member

Helmut Baumgart

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E55 T45 2007

Abstract

In this thesis a thorough analysis is presented on the effects of oxidation and oxide etching on the band structure of two dimensional silicon photonic crystals (2 D Si PC's). By using the plane wave expansion method (PWM), two structures of triangular lattice, namely, air cylinders embedded in a silicon background and silicon cylinders embedded in an air background are modeled. The thesis focuses on triangular lattice arrangement because for certain parameter values such a lattice can give rise to absolute band gap, which prohibits the propagation of either transverse electric (TE) or transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations.

During oxidation three processes occur simultaneously: silicon is consumed, consumed silicon is replaced by silicon dioxide, and silicon dioxide dimensions exceed the original silicon dimensions thereby displacing air. Each of these processes affects the photonic band gap differently. The first process causes the band gap to broaden and the latter two cause it to narrow. The contribution of each component to the overall change in the band gap is studied. In both structures the band gap is broadened and shifted up towards higher frequencies as the oxide grows. However, this is not a linear process; in each structure there is an oxide thickness value that gives rise to maximum change in band gap. This phenomenon is explained in terms of contribution from each component of the oxidation process.

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DOI

10.25777/qc3y-fz94

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