  Different mirror geometries in two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs are
studied with fully-vectorial calculations. We compare their optical properties
and, in particular, we show that, for heterostructure mirrors, the penetration
length associated with the delay induced by distributed reflection is not
correlated to the characteristic damping length of the electromagnetic energy
distribution in the mirror. This unexpected result evidences that the usual
trade-off between short damping lengths and large penetration lengths that is
classically encountered in distributed Bragg reflectors can be overcome with
carefully designed photonic crystal structures.
