Two-dimensional photonic crystal at THz frequencies constructed by metal-coated cylinders

Two-dimensional photonic crystals with photonic bandgaps (PBGs) in the terahertz (THz) frequency regime have been constructed by arraying metal-coated cylinders. PBGs were observed at 2.2 and 4.7 THz for the samples with lattice constant of 140 and 70 mum, respectively. Experimental results show that the PBGs were realized with only a small number of layers (less than or equal to10 periods) and they are robust against positional disorder (about 14%). Thus, metal-coated cylinders provide us with a promising approach to create robust PBGs in the THz frequency range. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.