Diamagnetic response of metallic photonic crystals at infrared and visible frequencies.

We show analytically and numerically that diamagnetic response (effective magnetic permeability mue<1) at infrared and visible frequencies can be achieved in photonic crystals composed of metallic nanowires or nanospheres when the wavelength is much larger than the lattice constant a (lambda approximately 2000a). When lambda approximately100a, the metallic photonic crystals will exhibit strong diamagnetic response (mue<0.8), leading to many interesting phenomena such as the unusual Brewster angle for s waves and incident-angle-and-polarization-independent reflection and transmission.