Unidirectional transmission in photonic-crystal gratings at beam-type illumination

Unidirectional transmission is studied theoretically and experimentally for the gratings with one-side corrugations (non-symmetric gratings), which are based on two-dimensional photonic crystals composed of alumina rods. The unidirectional transmission appears at a fixed angle of incidence as a combined effect of the peculiar dispersion features of the photonic crystal and the properly designed corrugations. It is shown that the basic unidirectional transmission characteristics, which are observed at a plane-wave illumination, are preserved at Gaussian-beam and horn antenna illuminations. The main attention is paid to the single-beam unidirectional regime, which is associated with the strong directional selectivity arising due to the first negative diffraction order. An additional degree of freedom for controlling the transmission of the electromagnetic waves is obtained by making use of the asymmetric corrugations at the photonic crystal interface. © 2010 Optical Society of America.