Photonic Crystal Formed by the Imaginary Part of the Refractive Index

A periodic array of dye-doped disks that form a 2D photonic lattice is fabricated and characterized. The array was generated by interference lithography, and the voids of the template were filled by SU8 without doping. This creates a photonic lattice with a uniform real part of the refractive index, but a periodically modulated imaginary part. The structure is characterized by diffraction measurements; the structure only diffracts light in the spectral range where the dye absorbs, hence acts like a truly imaginary index photonic crystal.</p