Colloidal photonic crystals and laser applications

Chapter 18 Colloidal Photonic Crystals and Laser Applications. 415... 

Photonic band gap (PBG) materials are a specific class of ordered stmctures containing a periodic variation in refractive index in two or three dimensions and are used in a variety of applications like low-loss waveguides, low threshold lasers to name a few. Colloidal self-assembly provides a very promising approach for the production of micron scale, three dimension photonic crystals with band gaps in the visible or infrared region. The limiting factor in the self-assembly process is the monodispersity of the colloids, as good quality crystals are only achieved with coUoids that have very low size polydispersity (<5 %). Braun et al. (2001, 2002) have recently employed colloidal crystallization of silica spheres to build photonic band gap crystals for different applications. 

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