3D Metallo-Dielectric Photonic Crystals with Strong Capacitive Coupling between Metallic Islands

We introduce a new type of metallo-dielectric photonic band gap structure (PBG), intentionally incorporating very strong capacitive interactions between the periodic metallic islands. The band gaps become huge, with the lower band edge frequency being pushed down by the capacitive interaction between metallic islands, while the upper band edge frequency continues to depend primarily on the lattice constant, as in normal PBG's. With this new type of photonic crystal, the spatial periodicity can be much smaller than the corresponding electromagnetic wavelength, allowing PBG structures to play a role at radio frequencies.