Photonic crystals are a class of synthetic materials which can control the absorption, emission and propagation of light to an unprecedented degree. In order to fully utilize their properties defect must be added to photonic crystals to direct the flow of light, and light emitting structures must be incorporated that have the ability to be electrically pumped. In pursuit of these goals, the coupling of photons into 3D photonic crystals was studied for template-based fabrication methods. A complete lack of coupling was demonstrated for frequencies within and around the photonic band gap due to a surface resonance. The cause of this behavior was studied using experiment and finite-difference time-domain calculations, and a solution developed. The incorporation of defects was studied next and advanced to allow for simultaneous imaging and defect writing using a fluorescent dye and two-photon sensitive photoinitiator. Complete spatial alignment of defects with respect to photonic crystal lattice was achieved using this method. While fabrication techniques such as phase mask lithography may be used to create a large variety of 3D structures, they are typically formed in SU-8 photoresist which cannot survive high temperature processes such as chemical vapor deposition. In order to make these structures accessible for future photonic crystal research a technique was developed to impart thermal stability to polymer templates using ceramic coatings deposited by atomic layer deposition and subsequent high-temperature growth of silicon was performed on the templates. Finally, a method was developed to create 3D photonic crystals from III-V semiconductors using a template based approach and metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. The result of this work was the fabrication of 3D photonic crystals from high-quality GaAs and the demonstration of the first electrically driven 3D photonic crystal LED.
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