This paper examines the connection between photonic band-gap formation in two types of two-dimensional photonic crystals and the emergence of reverse electromagnetic energy flows generated by linearly polarized plane waves incident on a photonic-crystal slab. We show that these reverse energy flows, observed in both transmitted and reflected fields, originate from vortex structures in the Poynting vector. The resulting energy-flow patterns exhibit striking analogies to vortex formation in fluid motion past obstacles. The geometry and dynamics of the Poynting-vector vortices determine whether the incident electromagnetic energy is impeded, leading to the formation of photonic band gaps, or instead guided through the structure, enabling transmission.
Andrey Pryamikov (Thu,) studied this question.