Multiperiodic Photonic Crystals for Ultrasensitive Temperature Monitoring and Polarization Switching

We study the influence of thermal expansion and thermo-optic effect on optical properties of finite 1-D three-periodic photonic crystals (PCs) of structure [(ab)
$^{N}$
(cd)
$^{M}$
]
$^{K}$
composed of four different nonmagnetic dielectric materials
${a}$
,
${b}$
,
${c}$
, and
${d}$
. We calculate temperature dependencies and incidence angle dependencies of the transmittivity of TE- and TM-polarized electromagnetic waves, as well as the distribution of energy within these structures. The optimal adjustment of PC bandgap centers for obtaining the desired transmission characteristics of the temperature-governed photonic bandgap structures is found, and the peculiarities of the energy distributions inside the photonic system are investigated. We propose a sensitive thermal polarization TE/TM switch as well as angular and temperature sensors working at the intraband-mode frequencies exploiting temperature effects.