Highly dispersive photonic band-gap prism

Abstract

We propose the concept of a photonic band-gap (PBG) prism based on two-dimensional PBG structures and realize it in the millimeter-wave spectral regime. We recognize the highly nonlinear dispersion of PBG materials near Brillouin zone edges and utilize the dispersion to achieve strong prism action. Such a PBG prism is very compact if operated in the optical regime, ~20 mm in size for lambda ~ 700 nm, and can serve as a dispersive element for building ultracompact miniature spectrometers.