Abstract
We investigated the phenomena of a metallic photonic crystal (MPC) immersed in liquid crystal. According to our design, the photonic crystal has specific photonic band gap (PBG) and can be utilized as a filter. The device is filled with nematic liquid crystal (NLC), MDA-00-3461. The refractive indices of NLC can be magnetically controlled by reorienting the NLC molecules. Consequently, the corresponding PBG and the filtering performance of the device are tunable. According to our experimental results, the low frequency boundary of PBG at 0.121 THz can be blue shifted by 6.17 GHz, and the high frequency boundary of PBG at 0.175 THz can be shifted to the blue by 11.04 GHz. As a tunable THz filter, the peak transmittance at 0.187 THz can be blue shifted by 3.66 GHz. © 2012 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).