Extended-Range Ultrarefractive 1D Photonic Crystal Prisms

A proposal has been made to exploit the special wavelength-dispersive characteristics of devices of the type described in “One-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Superprisms” (NPO-30232) NASA Tech Angle of Incidence Briefs, Vol. 29, No. 4 (April 2005), page 10a. A photonic crystal is an optical component that has a periodic structure comprising two dielectric materials with high dielectric contrast (e.g., a semiconductor and air), with geometrical feature sizes comparable to or smaller than light wavelengths of interest.