A program for calculating photonic band structures and transmission coefficients of complex structures

Abstract

We present here a program which will calculate either the photonic band structure or the transmission and reflection coefficients of photons incident on some complex metallic or dielectric structure. The method we use is to discretise the differential form of Maxwell's equations and arrange them such that we can apply the tried and trusted transfer matrix technique, often employed in condensed matter physics for calculating electronic properties of solids. The method is sufficiently general that any system with a well-defined unit cell can be studied.