光子晶体是一种介电常数不同的、其空间呈周期分布的新型光学材料。由于光子晶体具有光子带隙、光子局域和控制光子态密度等特性，所以它具有广阔的应用前景。简述了光子晶体的主要特征，重点介绍了其制备方法、进展以及实际的和潜在的应用。

Photonic crystals is a new type of optical material whose dielectric constant changes alternately following the coordinates of space. It has tremendous application prospect with the properties of photonic bandgap,photonic localization and controlling photonic density of state. The main characteristics of photonic crystals are introduced briefly,the methods of fabrication,the recent progress,practical and potential application of photonic crystals are reviewed detailedly.