Abstract
Photonic crystals control light propagation at a fundamental level [1]. Photonic crystals are ordered composite materials with a spatially varying dielectric constant that has a periodicity of the order of the wavelength of light. Frequency gaps emerge for which light cannot propagate inside such structure due to Bragg diffraction. These frequency gaps appear in experiments as stopbands. We have investigated stopbands in directions of high symmetry for two-dimensional photonic crystals. Surprisingly, we find a stopband below the first order Bragg condition. This result is valid not only for photonic crystals, but for wave propagation in periodic media in general. This has implications for crystallography, scattering of phonons and band gap formation.
© 2011 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
S. R. Huisman, R. V. Nair, L. A. Woldering, M. D. Leistikow, A. P. Mosk, and W. L. Vos
CK_P3 The European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO/Europe) 2011
Willem L. Vos, Judith E.G.J. Wijnhoven, and Mischa Megens
CFB6 The European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO/Europe) 1998
Xuan Guo, Lihong Han, Guifang Yuan, Zhongyuan Yu, Yumin Liu, and Pengfei Lu
83080V Asia Communications and Photonics Conference and Exhibition (ACP) 2011