Geometry influence on the transmission spectra of dielectric single layers of spheres with different compactness

The transmission of spectra of different dielectric spheres single layer arrangements has been measured. High dielectric permittivity (epsilon=7) spheres of several millimeters of diameter were used to build the samples whose transmission was measured in the microwave range. The behavior of lattices arranged in square and triangular geometries have been compared in a number of different compactness cases. The same patterns measured have also been calculated by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Spectra from different geometrical arrangements of the same compactness (measured with the same filling fraction value) are very similar in some cases. Based on the level of similarity we propose three compactness regions. The high compactness region, where the structure effect is important, presents spectra clearly different for the two geometries. In a medium compactness region spectra are almost identical, suggesting a dominant effect of single sphere effects. Finally, in the low compactness region, the spectra from the two geometrical configurations diverge again as the Bragg diffraction values are approached. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3434529]