Microcavity filters based on hexagonal lattice 2-D photonic crystal structures embedded in ridge waveguides

Two-dimensionally periodic photonic crystal microcavity filters in a ridge waveguide format have been designed and fabricated. Transition mode-matching features were added to increase the optical throughput by more than a factor of two. An increase of Q-factor (more than 100%) was achieved by the addition of two further rows of photonic crystal holes to the microcavity filters. Attempts have also been made to tailor the filter response by applying design concepts used in other Bragg-grating optical filter technologies.