Abstract:
We use our previous formulation for cylinder gratings in conical incidence to discuss the photonic band gap
properties of woodpile structures. We study scattering matrices and Bloch modes of the woodpile, and use
these to investigate the dependence of the optical properties on the number of layers. We give data on
reflectance, transmittance and absorptance of metallic woodpiles as a function of wavelength and number of
layers, using both the measured optical constants of tungsten and using a perfect conductivity idealization to
characterize the metal. For semi-infinite metallic woodpiles, we show that polarization of the incident field is
important, highlighting the role played by surface effects as opposed to lattice effects.
