  Infrared (IR) spectroscopy can be used as an important and effective tool for
probing periodic networks of quantum wires or nanotubes (quantum crossbars,
QCB) at finite frequencies far from the Luttinger liquid fixed point. Plasmon
excitations in QCB may be involved in resonance diffraction of incident
electromagnetic waves and in optical absorption in the IR part of the spectrum.
Direct absorption of external electric field in QCB strongly depends on the
direction of the wave vector ${\bf q}.$ This results in two types of $1D\to 2D$
dimensional crossover with varying angle of an incident wave or its frequency.
In the case of QCB interacting with semiconductor substrate, capacitive contact
between them does not destroy the Luttinger liquid character of the long wave
QCB excitations. However, the dielectric losses on a substrate surface are
significantly changed due to appearance of additional Landau damping. The
latter is initiated by diffraction processes on QCB superlattice and manifests
itself as strong but narrow absorption peaks lying below the damping region of
an isolated substrate.Submi
