Tunable mirrors and filters in 1D photonic crystals containing polymers

Mechanical tunability of mid-infrared mirrors and filters made of one dimensional photonic crystal (1DPC) containing polymers has been theoretically investigated under hydrostatic compression. The elasto-optic properties of the polymer materials such as poly(methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) are considered for tuning the properties of the 1DPCs. Studies on three multilayer 1DPCs viz., PS/SiO2, PMMA/SiO2, and PS/ PMMA under varying hydrostatic pressures are presented in this paper. The calculation shows that the photonic band gap (PBG) of all the 1DPCs shifts to higher frequency with increasing hydrostatic pressure. The detailed variations in the size of PBG of the mirrors, and operating frequency and full width half maximum of the filters based on all the three 1DPCs have been studied. This study shows that the polymer based 1DPC mirrors and filters can be mechanically tuned, facilitating their applications in designing novel photonic devices.