Photonic Hypercrystals

We introduce a new universality class of artificial optical media-photonic hypercrystals. These hyperbolic metamaterials, with periodic spatial variation of dielectric permittivity on subwavelength scale, combine the features of optical metamaterials and photonic crystals. In particular, surface waves supported by a hypercrystal possess the properties of both the optical Tamm states in photonic crystals and surface-plasmon polaritons at the metal-dielectric interface.