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Nature 401, 539-541 (7 October 1999) | doi:10.1038/44038

Open Innovation Challenges

Optics: Liquid versus photonic crystals

Eli Yablonovitch

A new paradigm has emerged in the past decade, in which the band-structure concepts of solid-state physics are applied to radio, microwave and optical waves. This has led to the invention of new forms of photonic crystal structures for controlling electromagnetic waves in three dimensions1, 2.