Highly Directive Leaky-Wave Radiation in 2-D Dielectric Photonic Crystals

A comparative study of the directive radiation obtained from two kinds of 2-D photonic crystal structures excited by an electric source is presented in this letter. These structures consist of a stack of periodic chains of dielectric cylinders in free space or of circular voids in dielectric media. On the basis of an in-depth description of the physical phenomena underlying the Bloch transverse-electric modal field configurations of such structures, a set of design rules to achieve highly directive leaky-wave radiation is obtained. An analysis of the two types of structures shows that it is preferable to consider holey lattices to achieve more directive radiation, obtained by the excitation of a weakly attenuated fundamental leaky mode. Indeed, radiators consisting of an integer number of periodic chains of voids drilled in a dielectric medium over a metal plate show directivity at broadside approximately 6 dB higher than in the dielectric cylinder case. This class of holey lattices can be used to design highly directive leaky-wave antennas, with significant advantages of easy manufacturing, design simplicity, and low complexity.