Near-infrared photonic band structure in a semiconductor metamaterial photonic crystal

In this study, we theoretically investigate the near-infrared (NIR) photonic band structure (PBS) in a one-dimensional semiconductor metamaterial (MM) photonic crystal (PC). The considered PC is (AB)^N, where N is the stack number, A is a dielectric, and B is a semiconductor MM composed of Al-doped ZnO and ZnO. It is found that the photonic band gaps (PBGs) can be tunable by the variations in filling factor, and thicknesses of A and B. It is of particular interest to see that the PBG will vanish when the thicknesses of A and B satisfy a certain condition. The results provide fundamental information on a NIR PBS that could be of technical use in photonic applications using such a semiconductor MM. The band gap vanishing makes it possible to design a wider band pass filter at NIR based on the use of such a PC.