Verification of a plasma photonic crystal for microwaves of millimeter wavelength range using two-dimensional array of columnar microplasmas

Abstract

We experimentally verified that a microplasma assembly can create a functional dielectric layer for the propagation of electromagnetic waves as a "plasma photonic crystal." A two-dimensional array in a square lattice was composed of columnar plasmas of about 2 mm in diameter, and the transmitted microwaves at 70-75 GHz showed a change of energy flow direction. This result is attributed to the fact that periodical structure is composed of individual plasma columns with a different dispersion than the ambient part and the experimental frequency range lies in the vicinity of the lowest band gap of the photonic crystal calculated theoretically.

Current status of microplasma research

“…However, there has been no positive idea to utilize this property in the current microplasma research until recently. We came up with the idea of using arrayed microplasmas as an artificially structured dielectric medium for controlling the transmittance of microwaves [64]. It is a concept similar to a photonic crystal in the visible range, but the wavelength range of interest for the plasma array lies in the millimeter to submillimeter regions in correspondence with the lattice constant of the array.…”

Optical Properties of One-Dimensional Binary Plasma Dielectric Photonic Crystal

“…Laxmi et al [20] have studied the photonic band gap effects in one-dimension plasma dielectric photonic crystal. O. Sakai et al have studied two-dimension PPC both experimentally [21] and numerically [22].…”

Modified Plane Wave Method Analysis of Dielectric Plasma Photonic Crystal

“…This active research area has been extended to plasma PC which is expected to obtain more particular characteristics than the conventional one [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. It is well known that electromagnetic waves with frequency below plasma frequency cannot propagate through a bulk plasma; if dielectric components are introduced periodically, it is possible for electromagnetic waves to be guided below the plasma frequency, and photonic band gaps (PBG) can be formed attributing to the surface plasma polarization.…”

“…Liu et al discussed the influence of plasma parameters on transmission and reflection coefficients for 1D plasma PC using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method [9]. In recent years, two-dimension (2D) unmagnetized plasma PC has been attached more importance for their potential controlling devices of millimeter waves [10][11][12][13][14][15]. There are two types of 2D plasma PC [15].…”