Tunable Reflection Properties and Photonic Bandgap Behavior of a One-Dimensional Metamaterial-Superconductor-Based Ternary Photonic Crystal

Abstract

In the present communication, we have investigated the tunable reflection properties and photonic bandgap variation of a one-dimensional metamaterial and superconductor based ternary photonic crystal. To design the 1D ternary photonic crystal, we have taken three alternate layers of metamaterial, superconductor (BSSCO), and silica (SiO2). Transfer matrix method (TMM) is employed to determine the optical reflection properties of the considered 1DPC for TE-mode by varying five parameters, viz. incident angle, superconductor temperature, thickness and refractive index of dielectric layer, and number of unit cells. It is noted that the ternary PC exhibits the features of tunable narrow band reflector, whose width increases with increase in the incident angle with a blue shift, and decreases with operating temperature of superconductor with red shift. It also enhances with increase in the dielectric layer thickness in low frequency region, and decreases in high frequency regime with red shifts. We obtain only one PBG at n3=1.46 in low frequency regime, while with increase in the refractive index multiple gaps are obtained in different frequency regions having distinct widths at n3=2.4 and 3.4. An increase in the number of unit cells causes increase in the reflectance, wherein no PBG is found below N=8. This analysis gives some insights to design tunable devices based on narrowband reflectivity in the terahertz frequency regime, including THz-metadevices, emitters, thermo-optical devices, and security sensors.