The role of fabrication deviations on the photonic band gap of 3D inverse woodpile nanostructures

In this report the effects of unintended deviations from ideal inverse woodpile photonic crystals on the band gap are discussed. These deviations occur during the nanofabrication of the crystal. By computational analyses it is shown that the band gap of this type of crystal is robust to most types of deviations that relate to the radii, position and angular alignment of the pores. However, the photonic band gap is very sensitive to tapering of the pores, i.e., conically shaped pores instead of cylindrical pores. To obtain three-dimensional inverse woodpile photonic crystals with a large volume, our work shows that with modern fabrication performances, tapering contributes most significantly to a reduction in the photonic strength of inverse woodpile photonic crystals.