Reflected wave of finite circulation from magnetic photonic crystals

We study the reflection of electromagnetic waves from a two-dimensional magnetic photonic crystal consisting of a periodic array of magnetic cylinders. At some frequencies the reflected wave is found to exhibit a strong circulation in that, locally, the angular momenta of the components are all of the same sign. As a result of this finite circulation, beams incident from different directions exhibit a dramatic change in their reflected waves. This effect can be used to build subwavelength one way waveguides, nearly perfect beam benders and splitters.