J.P. Mondia, S.W. Leonard, H.M. van Driel, O. Toader, and S. John Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada

K. Busch, Institute for Theory of Condensed Matter, University of Karlsruhe, P.O. Box 6980, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany

A. Birner and U.Gösele, Max-Planck-Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, D-06120 Halle, Germany

V. Lehmann, Infineon Technologies AG, Corporate Technology, Otto-Hahn-Ring 6, D-81730 München, Germany

We report the temperature tuning of a two-dimensional silicon photonic crystal (PC) having a triangular lattice of air pores infiltrated with liquid crystal E7. The PC has a lattice pitch of 1.58 mm and a complete two-dimensional photonic band gap range of 3.3-5.7 mm. After infiltration, the H-polarization band gap is 4.4-6.0 mm and the band gap for the E-polarization closes. As the sample is heated up to 60 oC the high frequency band edge shifts up to 70 nm while the low frequency band edge remains fixed. We account for the tuning characteristics in terms of liquid crystal birefringence and anchoring properties.

* Work supported by Photonics Research Ontario and NSERC