Genetic Algorithms Applied to the Design of 3D Photonic Crystals

We aim at determining the optimal configuration of photonic crystal structures capable of carrying out a certain optical task. An exhaustive search would require a high computational cost, in this work we show how genetic algorithms can be applied to reliably find an optimal topology of threedimensional photonic crystals. The fitness, representing the performance of each potential configuration, is calculated by means of finite element analysis. Different experiments are presented in order to illustrate the potential of this 3D design approach.