Quasinormal-mode description of waves in one-dimensional photonic crystals

Quasinormal-mode treatment is extended to the description of scalar field behavior in one-dimensional photonic crystals. A one-dimensional photonic crystal is a particular configuration of an open cavity, where discontinuities of the refractive index give rise to field confinement. This paper presents, for a one-dimensional photonic crystal, a discussion about the completeness of the quasinormal-mode representation and, moreover, a discussion on the complex eigenfrequencies, as well as the corresponding field distribution. The concept of density of modes is also discussed in terms of quasinormal modes.