Bandgaps and Group Velocity in Optical Lattices

Abstract

Abstract We study the optical properties of a periodic array of thin layers, as a model of an optical lattice carried by two counterpropagating plane waves. In particular we evaluate the dependence of the stationary waves on the polarization and the incidence angle of a probe beam. Also the effect of the dispersion relation and the photonic band gaps on the group velocity of wave packets is analyzed.