Properties of the angular gap in a one-dimensional photonic band gap structure containing single negative materials

Properties of the angular gap in a one-dimensional photonic band gap structure containing single negative materials are investigated. This gap forms at oblique incidence due to the total internal reflection into air when the Snell's law breaks down. Its lower edge occurs at the frequency where the refractive index of one or both layers of the structure approaches zero. This gap is found to be highly sensitive to the incident angle and the polarization of the incident light, but is not affected by the thickness ratio of the layers. It is also shown that the electric field gets extremely enhanced at the lower edge of this gap for transverse magnetic polarization. This highly enhanced electric field can be utilized for certain applications.