Effect of loss on the dispersion relation of photonic and phononic crystals

Abstract: A theoretical analysis is made of the transformation of the dispersion relation of waves in artificial crystals under the influence of loss, including the case of photonic and phononic crystals. Considering a general dispersion relation in implicit form, an analytic procedure is derived to obtain the transformed dispersion relation. It is shown that the dispersion relation is generally shifted in the complex $(k,\omega)$ plane, with $k$ the wavenumber and $\omega$ the angular frequency. The value of the shift is obtained explicitly as a function of the perturbation of material constants accounting for loss. The method is shown to predict correctly the transformation of the complex band structure $k(\omega)$. Several models of the dispersion relation near a symmetry point of the Brillouin zone are analyzed. A lower bound for the group velocity, related to the local shape of the band around symmetry points, is derived for each case.