The properties of photonic band gaps for three-dimensional plasma photonic crystals in a diamond structure

In this paper, the properties of photonic band gaps (PBGs) for two types of three-dimensional plasma photonic crystals (PPCs) composed of isotropic dielectric and unmagnetized plasma with diamond lattices are theoretically investigated for electromagnetic waves based on a modified plane wave expansion method. The equations for type-1 structure are theoretically deduced, which depend on the diamond lattices realization (dielectric spheres immersed in plasma background). The influences of dielectric constant of dielectric, plasma collision frequency, filling factor, and plasma frequency on PBGs are investigated, respectively, and some corresponding physical explanations and the possible methods to realize the three-dimensional PPCs in experiments are also given. From the numerical results, it has been shown that not only the locations but also the gap/midgap ratios of the PBGs for two types of PPCs can be tuned by plasma frequency, filling factor, and the relative dielectric constant, respectively. However, the plasma collision frequency has no effect on the frequency ranges and gap/midgap ratios of the PBGs for two types of PPCs. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4801043]