Angle-independent and -dependent optical binding of a one-dimensional photonic hypercrystal

Abstract

We show through rigorous calculation that optical binding can organize hyperbolic metamaterial slabs into one-dimensional photonic hypercrystals. It was reported that a photonic hypercrystal can possess an angle-independent band gap and blueshifting and redshifting band gaps. We find that an angle-independent band gap could lead to angle-independent optical binding, where light can organize a collection of hyperbolic slabs into one mechanically stable photonic hypercrystal, irrespective of the angle of incidence of the incident plane wave. We call such a phenomenon incident angle-independent optical binding. In addition, the evolution of the lattice constants of the self-organized photonic hypercrystals with blueshifting and redshifting band gaps is also investigated.