3-DIMENSIONAL METALLODIELECTRIC PHOTONIC CRYSTALS INCORPORATING FLAT METAL ELEMENTS

A three-dimensional metallodielectric photonic crystal (MDPC) that uti lizes planar metal scattering elements in a dielectric medium has been studied at microwave frequencies. The metal elements are flat copper circles defined on thin dielectric sheets using standard printed-circu it techniques. Thicker polyethelene sheets are alternately stacked wit h the thin metallized sheets to form a (111)-oriented face-centered-cu bic lattice. A photonic stopband has been measured from this ''flat-at om'' MDPC at 8.4 GHz with a rejection level of 18 dB per lattice perio d and a width of 50% of the center frequency. The photonic stopband pe rsists over a broad range of angles. Flat-atom MDPC results are compar ed with measurements made on ''spherical-atom'' MDPC structures. Varia tion of the stopband characteristics with thickness of the the dielect ric layers has been explored. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.