Fabrication techniques and applications of two-dimensional photonic crystal: history and the present status

The idea of photonic crystal came to be when E. Yablonovitch and S. John recommended a structure in 1987 having periodic alteration of refractive index in one or multiple directions. Photonic crystals have the potential to manipulate and tailor the flow of light across the crystal, which gives advantage to invent many photonic devices on the microscopic scale having very small footprints. In recent years several articles have been published on the advances of photonic crystal-based structures. This review article mainly focuses on the several fabrication techniques of photonic crystals and their applications in different fields. Several photonic crystal-based structures such as logic gates, optical sensors, polarization beam splitters, and absorbers for solar cells are reviewed in this paper to show recent advancements on this trending topic. Also, a brief review of the different steps of fabrication of photonic crystals and different fabrication methods proposed by researchers is articulated in this paper.