Abstract

Conventional photonic band gap (PBC.) structures are composed of regions with periodic modulation of refractive index that do not allow the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a certain interval of wavelengths, i.e., that exhibit the PBG effect.¹ The PBG effect is essentially an interference phenomenon related to strong multiple scattering of light in periodic media. The interest to the PBG structures has dramatically risen since the possibility of efficient waveguiding around a sharp corner of a line defect in the PBG structure has been pointed out.² Given the perspective of integrating various PBG-based components within a few hundred micrometers, we realized that other two-dimensional waves, e.g., surface plasmon polaritons (SPP’s), might be employed for the same purpose. The SPP band gap (SPPBG) has been observed for the textured silver surfaces by performing angular measurements of the surface reflectivity. Here we report the results of our experimental and theoretical investigations of waveguiding in the SPPBG structures.

© 2001 Optical Society of America