Plates made of Plexiglas were employed to embody the constructed 3D PhC structure. By employing a laser engraving machine, holes were drilled inside the Plexiglas plates at the exact positions where the Al2O3 rods should be placed. The refractive index of Plexiglas has been measured via Bragg condition50 to be equal to 1.59 and numerical analyses revealed that placing the Plexiglas plates does not change the results significantly. The structural parameters are same as in the numerical calculations, where the in-plane period is set equal to a = 17.96 mm. The experimental setup (see Fig. 6), consists of a standard horn antenna, a monopole coaxial antenna and a vector network analyzer (Agilent 5071 C ENA). The horn antenna has an aperture size of 12.5 cm and 9.5 cm in the x- and y- directions, respectively, and is used to inject electromagnetic waves into the structure with electric field polarized in the y- direction, whereas the monopole antenna is used to detect the radiated electromagnetic waves. Furthermore, the experimental setup was covered with microwave absorbers to minimize the noise due to environmental reflections.