Dispersionless gaps and cavity modes in photonic crystals containing hyperbolic metamaterials

We theoretically study dispersionless gaps and cavity modes in one-dimensional photonic crystals composed of hyperbolic metamaterials and dielectric. Bragg gaps in conventional all-dielectric photonic crystals are always dispersive because propagating phases in two kinds of dielectrics decrease with incident angle. Here, based on phase variation compensation between a hyperbolic metamaterial layer and an isotropic dielectric layer, the dispersion of the gap can be offset and thus a dispersionless gap can be realized. Moreover, the dispersionless property of such gap has a wide parameter space. The dispersionless gap can be used to realize a dispersionless cavity mode. The dispersionless gaps and cavity modes will possess significant applications for all-angle reflectors, high-Q filters excited with finite-sized sources, and nonlinear wave mixing processes.