Effects of structural fluctuations on the photonic bandgap during fabrication of a photonic crystal: a study of a photonic crystal with a finite number of periods

We study theoretically the effects of structural fluctuations on the photonic bandgap during fabrication for the case of a photonic crystal with a finite number of periods. We use the transfer-matrix method to calculate the transmission spectra of the photonic crystals. The results of our calculations show that, even with a misalignment irregularity of 18%, the bandgap remains as large as 10%. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(99)01709-9].