Quasi-bandgap behavior in non-Hermitian photonic crystals

Abstract

We investigate non-Hermitian photonic crystals in which the lossy and lossless constituents share the same real permittivity and differ only in their imaginary part. We characterize the complex band structure and reflection response of both one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) systems, and show that introducing even a small amount of material loss opens a quasi bandgap at the Brillouin-zone boundary. This quasi bandgap, absent in the lossless limit of the same structure, gives rise to sharp reflectivity peaks whose origin we explain through second-order perturbation theory. As an application of this behavior, we demonstrate a selective reflector combining a conventional photonic-crystal waveguide with a non-Hermitian photonic crystal, achieving wavelength-selective reflection with broadband absorption.