Periodic nanostructures for photonics

Periodic nanostructures in photonics facilitate a far-reaching control of light propagation and light-matter interaction. This article reviews the current status of this subject, including both recent progress and well-established results. The primary focus is on the basic physical principles and potential applications associated with the existence of Bragg scattering, photonic band structures, and engineered effective-medium properties in periodic dielectric and metallo-dielectric systems. In addition, we discuss advantages and limitations of various theoretical and numerical approaches as well as of those fabrication techniques that have specifically been developed for this field. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.