Magnetic Photonic Crystals as Artificial Magnetoelectrics

Magnetic photonic crystals are spatially periodic dielectric composites with at least one of the constitutive components being a magnetically polarized material. We show that the electrodynamic properties of magnetic photonic crystals with proper configuration correspond to those of hypothetical media with huge linear magnetoelectric effect. In particular, such composites can display strong asymmetry ω(k) ≠ ω(−k) of the electromagnetic dispersion