Experimental characterization of a 6.7 GHz coaxial Bragg reflector

A coaxial line periodically loaded by circular disks on the inner conductor is designed and constructed to act as Bragg reflector in the 4.0-9.5 GHz frequency range. This is achieved by placing 10 disks (0.35 cm thick and 6.22 cm in diameter) equally spaced by the periodic distance of 1.8 cm on a coaxial waveguide with inner and outer diameters of 6.90 and 4.22 cm. Experiments on a periodic structure made from stainless steel demonstrate a band gap of 5.6 GHz centered at the 6.7 GHz design frequency in close agreement with 3D microwave computer simulations.