Combining complementary multiple bandgaps in one-dimensional plasma photonic crystal heterostructures

A single bandgap overlapping scheme is often used to enlarge the photonic bandgap (PBG) range in cascaded or hetero one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D PC) structures. In this paper, we design an optimized one-dimensional plasma photonic crystal (1D PPC) heterostructure based on the idea of combining complementary multiple PBGs to enlarge the PBG range. The flexibility of the PBG of a 1D PPC, caused by the frequency-dependent dispersive properties of plasma, is helpful for generating and combining multiple bandgaps. The obtained omni-directional photonic bandgap (ODPBG) width for the 1D PPC heterostructure is dramatically enhanced compared with that of a single 1D PPC alone and is much larger than that of 1D PC heterostructures described in the previous works. Further study shows that the PPC heterostructures are more suitable than other heterostructures (such as a 1D PC heterostructure or heterostructures composed of a 1D PPC and 1D PC) for combining complementary PBGs. The ODPBG ranges for 1D PPC heterostructures can be further extended by adjusting the parameters of the plasma to allow more complementary PBGs to combine with each other.