Specific features of light propagation in periodic structures with natural and electric-field-induced anisotropy

It is shown that the presence of natural and electric-field-induced anisotropy gives rise to doubling of the number of photonic bandgaps in a layered periodic structure and to their shift, with its value depending significantly on the applied electric field. The possibility of development of compact (several micrometers thick) electric-field-controlled polarization devices and half-wave elements on the basis of anisotropic periodic structures containing cubic centrosymmetric media with high electro-optic efficiency is shown. A method for determination of the photonic-band-gap boundaries of confined superlattices on the basis of precision polarization measurements is proposed.