Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2014
In this paper, the effect of the magnetic field on one-dimensional plasma photonic crystal band gaps is studied. The one-dimensional fourfold plasma photonic crystal is applied that contains four periodic layers of different materials, namely plasma1–MgF2–plasma2–glass in one unit cell. Based on the principle of Kronig–Penney's model, dispersion relation for such a structure is obtained. The equations for effective dielectric functions of these two modes are theoretically deduced, and dispersion relations for transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) waves are calculated. At first, the main band gap width increases by applying the exterior magnetic field. Subsequently, the frequency region of this main band gap transfers completely toward higher frequencies. There is a particular upper limit for the magnitude of the magnetic field above which increasing the exterior magnetic field strength doesn't have any significant influence on the dispersion function behavior. (With an increase in incident angle up to θ1 = 66°, the width of photonic band gap (PBG) changes for both TM/TE polarization.) With an increase in incident angle up to θ1 = 66°, the width of PBG decreases for TM polarization and the width of PBG increases for TE polarization, but it increases with further increasing of the incident angle from θ1 = 66° to 89° for both TE- and TM-polarizations. Also, it has been observed that the width of the photonic band gaps changes rapidly by relative difference of the two-plasma frequency. Results show the existence of several photonic band gaps that their frequency and dispersion magnitude can be controlled by the exterior magnetic field, incident angle, and two plasma frequencies. The result of this research would provide theoretical instructions for designing filters, microcavities, fibers, etc.