Photonic crystals: Semiconductors in the light of information age"

The electronic and microelectronic technology is moving towards the limit of physics and technology, photon instead of electrons as the information carrier is a consensus of people for a long time in recent years, Chinese scientists have made some remarkable achievements in basic research of photonic crystals. Our country can develop a new generation of integrated circuit technology and photonic crystal technology to co-ordinate the planning, to achieve the smooth transition of microelectronics technology to photonic technology.

Photon technology brings information revolution

Information technology is the main technical support of the information society. At present, the core of information technology is microelectronics technology based on semiconductor material. Due to strong demand, microelectronics technology is developing at an alarming rate. According to the "Moore's law", the integration of the semiconductor element in every 18 months to double the speed of development, electronic and microelectronic technology is moving towards the limit of physics and Technology (such as the speed limit, the density limit), the technical limit of these impassable information technology's further development presents a significant challenge.

It has been a long time for people to use photons as the carrier of information, because it has the advantages of high transmission speed, high density and high fault tolerance. However, due to the photon is not as easy to control as the electronic, optical information technology has long been used in information transmission (optical communication), and is the most basic information function. The core part of information processing is still dependent on Microelectronics technology.

The appearance of photonic crystals, also known as photonic band gap materials, makes it possible for people to manipulate and control photons. From the view of material structure, photonic crystal is a kind of artificial design and manufacture of crystal with periodic dielectric structure. Similar to semiconductor lattice modulation on the electron wave function, photons can modulation with the corresponding wavelength of electromagnetic wave, when the electromagnetic wave in the photonic band gap materials spread, band gap materials due to Prague scattering by modulated electromagnetic wave energy band structure formation. The band gap appears between the band and the band. The energy in the photonic band gap can not enter the crystal. There are many similarities between photonic crystals and semiconductors in the basic models and research ideas. In principle, the design and fabrication of photonic crystals and devices can be used to control the photon motion.

So far, there have been many new photonic devices based on photonic crystals have been proposed, including laser threshold, lossless reflector and bending optical path, optical microcavity with high quality factor, nonlinear switch and amplifier of low driving energy, high wavelength resolution and positive small super prism, a photonic crystal fiber dispersion compensation effect, and improve the efficiency of the light emitting diode etc.. The appearance of photonic crystals. The information processing technology of "optical sub" and photonic technology miniaturization and integration is possible, it may lead to a revolution in information technology in the future, and that the effect can be compared in semiconductor technology.

To achieve a smooth transition from microelectronics to photonics technology

The photonic band gap theory since 1987 by American scientists, immediately attracted close attention of the United States and other western countries in academia, industry and military, government agencies and some multinational companies have invested in research work carried out in theory, the related materials and devices. According to incomplete statistics, with the technology related to the patent of photonic crystals has reached more than 1000. A large number of foreign companies have developed a variety of photonic crystal devices, photonic crystal fiber and other products have entered the stage of industrialization.

The appearance of photonic crystals provides a historic opportunity for the new leap of information technology. As of mid twentieth Century found that this second semiconductor world economy century have a huge impact, research, development and application of photonic crystals may provide a new growth point for the future development of the world economy for several years.

In recent years, the research on photonic crystals of our government and the scientific community have given considerable attention, the study of photonic crystal has been the national "973 Program" and the "863 Plan" to support Chinese scientific workers in basic research of photonic crystal materials has made some remarkable achievements, such as the photon for the first time found that the research group of Fudan University professor of information sword peacock feathers in the bandgap structure of photonic crystal China quasicrystal structure is put forward by Professor Zhang Daozhong Institute of physics, and we first proposed based on ferroelectric ceramic phase and electric optic effect of tunable photonic crystals are in the international peer influence. However, as a kind of material with great application background, it is not enough to stay in the academic research. Drawing on the experience and lessons of the development of China's semiconductor industry, we should focus on the application of key materials and devices as soon as possible. Because of the need for the preparation of nano - micron scale, the equipment is very expensive, so the related processing technology will become the bottleneck of related industries.

At present, a large number of foreign companies are trying to integrate the existing semiconductor integrated circuit technology for the manufacture of photonic crystal materials and devices. At present, China's large-scale integrated circuit industry is in rapid growth stage, considering the technology strategy, the development of a new generation of integrated circuit technology and photonic crystal technology planning, the development of photonic crystal process in integrated circuit fabrication on the basis, not only can save a lot of