Electromagnetic wave control of ceramic/resin photonic crystals with diamond structure

Millimeter-order photonic crystals with the periodic arrangement of the dielectric constant were fabricated by infiltrating the mixed slurry of ceramics and polyester into the epoxy molds with an inverse form of a diamond structure. The epoxy molds are designed and processed by using a CAD/CAM process of stereolithography. The photonic crystals were prepared to have the diamond structure of the ceramic/polyester composite lattice, which is embedded in the epoxy matrix. The ceramic powders mixed with polyester are TiO2, SrTiO3, and BaTiO3 with high dielectric constant. It is possible to control more freely and widely the dielectric constant of the photonic crystals by this method. These ceramic/resin photonic crystals formed the complete photonic band gaps in the microwave band of 7–11 GHz, which can totally reflect the electromagnetic wave for all crystal directions. Attenuation profiles of the transmission amplitude in the band gaps were controlled with the dielectric constant of the composite lattice. The obtained results fairly agreed with the theoretical simulation of the electromagnetic wave propagation through photonic crystals.