Band-reject infrared metallic photonic band gap filters on flexible polyimide substrate

Metallic photonic band gap (MPBG) structures are multi-layer metallic meshes imbedded in a dielectric medium. We report the successful design, fabrication, and characterization of infrared band-reject filters using MPBG structures in a flexible polyimide substrate. The metal layers of the MPBG have square grid patterns with short perpendicular cross-arm defects added halfway between each intersection. The transmission characteristics of these filters show a higher order band-reject region in addition to a lower order band gap that extends from zero to particular cut off frequency. The critical frequencies of the filters depend on the spatial periodicity of the metal grids and length of the cross-arm defects. Optical transmission measurements of the bandreject filters show lower edge cutoff frequency of about 2 THz and the higher order bandgap region centered around 4.5THz with attenuation of more than 35 dB in the bandgap region. This is in good agreement with the theoretical calculations. The filters maintain their optical characteristics after repeated bending, demonstrating mechanical robustness of the MPBG structure and have minimal dependence on angle of incidence.