Artificially fabricated structures with periodically modulated parameterssuch as photonic crystals offer novel ways of controlling the flow of light dueto the existence of a range of forbidden frequencies associated with a photonicbandgap. It is believed that modulation of the refractive index in all threespatial dimensions is required to open a complete bandgap and prevent thepropagation of electromagnetic waves in all directions. Here we reveal that, ina sharp contrast to what was known before and contrary to the accepted physicalintuition, a one-dimensional periodic structure containing the layers oftransparent left-handed (or negative-index) metamaterial can trap light inthree-dimensional space due to the existence of a complete bandgap.
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