Tunable Narrow Band Porous Photonic Crystals for MOEMS Based Scanning Systems

Abstract Electrochemical etching processes allow the cost-effective fabrication of tunable photonic crystals for wide field of sensor applications. Key issues of the crystal development are the precise control of fabrication parameters and the application-oriented realization. Tunable narrow band photonic crystals are useful optical devices for spectral range scanning, especially in MOEMS based scanning systems for multi-spectral analysis. Index matching and apodization are effective optical tools for successful formation of narrow band optical filters without side lobes and ripples outside the stop band. In this paper, design rules, influence of the process parameters, optical properties and characterization of narrow band porous silicon based photonic crystals for MOEMS based scanning systems are presented.