Exact Calculation of Local Density of States in Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystals

An exact calculation method of local density of states (LDOS) in two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals (PCs) is presented. In order to calculate the LDOS, the eigen-equation of magnetic field is first solved by the plane-wave expansion method, then the eigen-modes of electric-field are obtained. There are two different ways to solve the eigen-equantion of magnetic field and three different ways to obtain the eigen-modes of the electric-field. In comparison of the numerical results from these different ways, an exact and fast method for calculating the LDOS in PCs is found. With use of this method, we investigate the LDOS of the 2D PCs consisting of a triangular lattice of cylinders. The results show the large LDOS is favorable to reside in higher dielectric-constant medium in high frequency region, rather than in lower dielectric-constant medium.