Surface state peculiarities in one-dimensional photonic crystal interfaces

Abstract

We study the optical properties of a photonic crystal interfaced with a uniform medium with the negative dielectric constant or with another photonic crystal. We show that, at such an interface, nonpropagating surface states may arise. These states result in a sharp feature in the transmission and reflection spectra of the system. We also show that interfacing magnetic and nonmagnetic photonic crystals gives rise to giant Faraday and Kerr effects.