Metallic photonic crystals at optical wavelengths

I. El-Kady, M.M. Sigalas, R. Biswas, K.M. Ho, C. M. Soukoulis,

Ames Laboratory and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011

We theoretically study three-dimensional metallic photonic band gap (PBG) materials in the near infrared and optical wavelengths. Our main objective is to find how important the effect of the absorption is in the metal. For this reason, we study simple cubic structures of metallic scatters that are either cubes or interconnected metallic rods. Four different materials have been studied (aluminum, gold, copper, and silver). Copper and silver give the smallest absorption while aluminum is the most absorptive. The results show that the isolated metallic cubes are less lossy than the connected rod structures. The calculations show that isolated copper or silver scatters are very attractive candidates for the fabrication of photonic crystals at optical wavelengths.