Bandgap characteristics of one-dimensional plasma photonic crystal

When two pump laser pulses intersect in an underdense plasma, plasma Bragg grating (PBG) is induced by the slow-varying ponderomotive force [Z. M. Sheng et al., Appl. Phys. B: Lasers Opt. 77, 673 (2003)]. Such a PBG can be considered as a one-dimensional (1D) plasma photonic crystal (PPC). Here the bandgap characteristic of 1D PPC composed of plasma layers of different densities is investigated theoretically and numerically. It is found that when the maximum density is lower than the critical density of the pump laser, there is only one normal-incidence bandgap. When the maximum density is higher than the critical density of the pump laser, high-order bandgaps are found. The theoretical results are verified by 1D particle-in-cell simulations.