Fabrication of Ceramic–Polymer Photonic Crystals by Stereolithography and Their Microwave Properties

Three-dimensional photonic crystals with periodic variations in the dielectric constant were fabricated using a stereolithographic rapid prototyping method. The structures were composed of millimeter-scale ordered epoxy lattices in which ceramic particles with high dielectric constants (such as silica and titania) were dispersed. These crystals were designed to reflect microwaves via the formation of photonic band gaps in a gigahertz range. The attenuation of transmission amplitude through the photonic crystals, which was measured as a function of frequency using a network analyzer, clearly showed the formation of band gaps in the microwave range.