Photonic crystals: A new quasi-optical component for high-power microwaves

The interaction of a high-power microwave beam with a face-centered-cubic photonic Crystal is studied, A Sinus-6 high-power relativistic repetitively pulsed electron beam accelerator was used to drive a slow wave structure in vacuum to generate 450 MW at 9.65 GHz, It is shown that the photonic crystal, comprised of a periodic arrangement of air holes in a dielectric host, is capable of performing as a quasi-optical reflector similar to a metal. The crystals can be designed to operate as efficient frequency-selective reflectors over narrow frequency ranges, We propose that photonic crystals can have many applications in high-power microwave research.