Photonic bands in simple and body-centered-cubic cholesteric blue phases

A procedure is developed for calculating photon bands in materials characterized by tensor dielectric properties. As a specific example, the cholesteric blue phases are considered, and their respective photon bands are calculated for simple and body-centered-cubic structures. These noncentrosymmetric materials interact strongly with only one of the two possible circularly polarized radiation modes; however, no full photon gaps are found even for this mode. The reasons for this are noted. The technique presented is general and can be applied to all materials characterized by tensor dielectric properties.