Back to basics: history of photonic crystals and metamaterials

Abstract

We will review the history of photonic crystals and overview of the theoretical and experimental efforts in obtaining a photonic bandgap, a frequency band in three-dimensional dielectric structures in which electromagnetic (EM) waves are forbidden, is presented. Many experimental groups all over the world still employ this woodpile structure to fabricate PCs at optical wavelengths, waveguides, enhance nanocavities, and produce nanolasers with a low threshold limit. We have been focused on a new class of materials, the so-called metamaterials (MMs) or negative-index materials, which exhibit highly unusual electromagnetic properties and hold promise for new device applications. Metamaterials can be designed to exhibit both electric and magnetic resonances that can be separately tuned to occur in frequency bands from megahertz to terahertz frequencies, and hope-fully to the visible region of the EM spectrum.