Analysis of photonic band gaps in metamaterial-based one-dimensional ternary photonic crystals

In the present work, we propose a one-dimensional ternary photonic crystals composed of alternatively stacked dispersive metamaterial layers including double-negative (electric permittivity epsilon<0 and magnetic permeability <0) material, epsilon-negative material (epsilon<0, but >0), and mu-negative material (<0, but epsilon>0) within some frequency ranges. Various types of photonic band gaps including Bragg gaps, zero-permittivity gap, zero-permeability gap, and a special band gap are, respectively, presented and discussed against the periodic number, thickness of dielectric layer, and incident angle. In the case of normal incidence, the band width, position, and transmittance for the Bragg and special band gaps are related to the thickness of each layer and periodic number. Under the oblique incidence (incident angle 0 degrees<<90 degrees) condition, both the zero-permittivity band gap for TM wave and zero-permeability band gap for TE wave are achieved, which are significantly broadened and blue-shifted with respect to the increase in incident angle. As such, the incident angle-dependent Bragg band gaps and special band gap are also exhibited by selecting TE- and TM-polarized waves, respectively.