Abstract

There is a great deal of current interest 1n the possibility of creating 3-D photonic band crystals in which no electromagnetic (EM) propagation is possible for certain frequencies.^1,2 A number of periodic structures have been shown theoretically to have photonic band gaps. However, the only experimentally realizable structure is limited to a three-angle drilling scheme that cannot be easily reproduced or extended to smaller scales.³ Recently, Ho et al. proposed a new structure based on stacked dielectric rods, which can be fabricated at smaller scales by conventional methods.⁴ We have built this new structure by using alumina rods, and Vie have confirmed the existence of a full photonic-band-gap at X-band (12–14-GHz) frequencies.⁵ In this paper we demonstrate the scalability of the new structure by building a crystal that has a photonic band gap at 100 GHz.

© 1994 Optical Society of America