EFFECTIVE PROPERTIES AND BAND STRUCTURES OF LAMELLAR SUBWAVELENGTH CRYSTALS - PLANE-WAVE METHOD REVISITED

The plane-wave method used to compute the band structure of photonic c rystals is revisited in light of recent mathematical results about the Fourier factorization of products of discontinuous functions. Highly accurate numerical predictions for the effective index and for the ban d structure are obtained for two- and three-dimensional dielectric lam ellar crystals with high dielectric contrasts. At the same time, we cl arify some aspects related to the effective properties of multidimensi onal crystals by establishing clear Links between their band structure s and their effective indices. [S0163-1829(98)07239-7].