Strategies for dielectric contrast enhancement in 1D planar polymeric photonic crystals

Historically, photonic crystals have been made of inorganic high refractive index materials coupled to air voids to maximize the dielectric contrast and in turn the light confinement. However, these systems are complex, costly, and time-demanding, and the fabrication processes are difficult to scale. Polymer structures promise to tackle this issue thanks to their easy solution and melt processing. Unfortunately, their low dielectric contrast limits their performance. In this work, we propose a concise but exhaustive review of the common polymers employed in the fabrication of planar 1D photonic crystals and new approaches to the enhancement of their dielectric contrast. Transfer matrix method modeling will be employed to quantify the effect of this parameter in standardized structures and to propose a new polymer structure for applications dealing with light management.