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Various important scientific and engineering applications, such as control of spontaneous emission, zero-threshold lasing, sharp bending of light, and trapping of photons, are expected by using photonic bandgap (PBG) crystals with artificially introduced defect states and/ or light-emitters. Realizing the maximum potential of photonic crystals requires the following steps: (i) construct a three-dimensional (3D) crystal with a complete photonic bandgap in the optical wavelength region; (ii) introduce an arbitrary defect into the crystal at an arbitrary position; (iii) introduce an efficient light-emitter; and, (iv) use an electronically conductive crystal, as this is desirable for actual device application. Although various approaches to constructing 3D crystals have been proposed and investigated, none of these reports satisfies the above requirements simultaneously. To develop complete 3D crystals at infrared (5-10um) to near-infrared wavelengths (1-2um), we stacked III-V semiconductor gratings into a diamond structure by means of wafer bonding and a laser-beam-assisted very precise alignment technique. Since the crystal is constructed with III-V semiconductors, which are widely used for optoelectronic devices, requirement (iii) is satisfied. Moreover, as the wafer bonding enables us to construct an arbitrary structure and to form an electronically conductive interface, all the above requirements (i)-(iv) will be satisfied. In this paper, we review our approach for creating full 3D photonic bandgap crystals at near-infrared wavelengths.
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