Tunable complete photonic band gap in anisotropic photonic crystal slabs with non-circular air holes using liquid crystals

• Noticeable tunability of complete photonic band gap can be obtained in both square and triangular structures with non-circular holes.
• The projected band structures of PC slabs are calculated by plane wave expansion (PWE) method using the MIT Photonic-Bands (MPB) package.
• In the case of square holes the tunability has been increased compared to hexagonal holes structure and previously studied square lattice structures with LC-infiltrated circular holes.

In this study, we analyze the tunability of complete photonic band gap of square and triangular photonic crystal slabs composed of square and hexagonal air holes in anisotropic tellurium background with SiO2 as cladding material. The non-circular holes are infiltrated with liquid crystal. Using the supercell method based on plane wave expansion, we study the variation of complete band gap by changing the optical axis orientation of liquid crystal. Our numerical results show that noticeable tunability of complete photonic band gap can be obtained in both square and triangular structures with non-circular holes.