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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
As demonstrated for the example of a diamond and zinc blende structure of dielectric spheres, small inclusions of a low absorbing metal with the volume fraction fm can have a dramatic effect on a complete photonic band gap (CPBG) between the 2nd-3rd bands. For example, in the case of silica coated silver spheres, the CPBG opens for fm ≍ 1.1% and exceeds 5% for fm ≍ 2.5%. Consequently, any dielectric material can be used to fabricate a photonic crystal with a sizeable and robust CPBG in three dimensions. Absorption in the CPBG of 5% remains very small (≤ 2.6% for λ ≥ 750 nm). The structure enjoys almost perfect scaling, enabling one to scale the CPBG from microwaves down to ultraviolet wavelengths.