For my EE3291: Photonic Materials and Devices course at Michigan Tech, I was tasked with using the MIT Photonic Bands program (link) to simulate photonic band structures. It is “a free program for computing the band structures (dispersion relations) and electromagnetic modes of periodic dielectric structures, on both serial and parallel computers. [1]” Here are some of my thoughts on the program and the project:
Ease of Use:
MIT Photonic Bands has a bit of a learning curve. In order to use the program you need to install Linux (I used Debian) and know how to use the command line. At first, it is an intimidating program due to its lack of user interface, but it can be easily mastered. In Debian, MIT Photonic Bands can be installed straight from the software center. In other Linux systems, you may have to compile manually.
Pros vs Cons:
Positives
- Computational Power
- Helpful Tutorials
- Scheme language
- ctl files
Negatives
- No GUI
My Project:
For class, my project was to go through all of the tutorials and then simulate a given structure. The given structure was a triangular periodic lattice of infinite rods with one missing in the center.
By modifying the triangular rod lattice tutorial, I came up with these images. The blue and red show the peaks and troughs of the electromagnetic field amplitude for various modes. I have included images for modes 1 – 16. I followed the Data Analysis Tutorial. See the online text book for more details.
Overall Thoughts:
Overall, I greatly enjoyed this program. At first it was complicated, but after going through the tutorials, it all made a lot more sense. The online text book helped connect the tutorial images to other photonic applications. It is a powerful program and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to simulate photonic band structures.
Sources:
[1] http://ab-initio.mit.edu/wiki/index.php/MIT_Photonic_Bands
Elizabeth F. C. Dreyer 