Transmission through chiral twist defects in anisotropic periodic structures.

A long-lived photonic state is observed in measurements of microwave transmission through a helical stack of anisotropic overhead transparencies with various twist defects in the center of the structure. Once account is taken of absorption and of the angular spread of the source, computer simulations of transmission through a polarized localized state are in agreement with measurements. Unlike for isotropic one-dimensional bandgaps, the intensity of the localized mode is not modulated in space on a wavelength scale.