Theory and optical properties of photonic crystal slabs

Recent theoretical and experimental work on photonic crystal slabs is reviewed. Theoretical developments include a guided-mode expansion formulation for calculating photnoic mode dispersion and diffraction losses, the effects of disorder-induced scattering, and the theory of coupling between radiation and matter. Experimental results obtained on Silicon-based systems consist of spectroscopy of photonic modes by means of angle-resolved reflectance and attenuated total reflectance, waveguide transmission, and enhancement of emission in active structures.