Optical transmission and waveguiding by excitonic quantum dot lattices

Metal-dielectric-metal configurations of optical waveguides have a very high laterally packaging density at the cost of high optical loss. Photonic crystals based on refractive-index-modulation materials have been used in optics, e.g., two materials having different refractive indices form a well-defined Bragg refraction mirror. Such a waveguide has lower loss but also lower packaging density. From the outset of these two notions, we propose a photonic-crystal device based on the exciton-polariton effect in a three-dimensional array of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) for ultradense optical planar circuit applications. Excitons are first photogenerated in the QDs by the incident electromagnetic field, the exciton-polariton effect in the QD photonic crystal then induces an extra optical dispersion in QDs. The high contrast ratio between the optical dispersions of the QDs and the background therefore creates clear photonic bandgaps. By carefully designing the QD size and the QD lattice structure, perfect electromagnetic field reflection can be obtained at a specific wavelength in the lossless case, thus providing the fundamental basis for ultradense optical waveguide applications.