Tuning of anisotropic optical properties of two-dimensional dielectric photonic crystals

We study the control of the anisotropic optical properties of the two-dimensional (2D) dielectric photonic crystals (PCs) in a long-wavelength limit. It is achieved either by distorting the symmetry of 2D PCs or by changing the dielectric constant of one of two constituents, for example, that of liquid crystals infiltrated in 2D PCs. Our calculations show that the decrease of dielectric constant per strain in the direction of strain is larger than the one normal to the strain direction. The variation of birefringence observable from the studied structures is calculated to be larger than the birefringence of quartz. Thus the tuning of principal refractive indices of 2D PC would be very attractive for the applications in the polarization optical devices. We have also discussed the effects of strain on the other optical properties of PCs such as the superprism phenomena. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.