Photonics inverse opals

Figure 15.7 (a) The preparation of inverse opal photonic balls using polymer spheres and an inorganic... 

Nanoscale structures such as inverse opals have fascinating photonic properties related to Natural nanostructures with potential applications in optical computing. 

FIGURE 15 (A) SEM image of PMMA opal photonic crystal (B) SEM image of ceria inversed opal photonic crystal made from the PMMA template. Reprinted with permission from Waterhouse and Waterland (2007). Copyright 2008 American Chemical Society. 

Ordered macroporous materials (OMMs) are a new family of porous materials that can be synthesized by using colloidal microspheies as the template. - The most unique characteristics of OMMs are their uniformly sized macropores arranged at micrometer length scale in three dimensions. Colloidal microspheres (latex polymer or silica) can self assemble into ordered arrays (synthetic opals) with a three-dimensional crystalline structure. The interstices in the colloidal crystals are infiltrated with a precursor material such as metal alkoxide. Upon removal of the template, a skeleton of the infiltrated material with a three-dimensionally ordered macroporous structure (inverse opals) is obtained. Because of the 30 periodicity of the materials, these structures have been extensively studied for photonic applications. In this paper, the synthesis and characterization of highly ordered macroporous materials with various compositions and functionalities (silica, organosilica, titana, titanosilicate, alumina) are presented. The application potential of OMMS in adsorption/separation is analyzed and discussed. 

Johnson, N., McComb, D., Richel, A. et al., Synthesis and optical properties of opal and inverse opal photonic crystals, Synthet. Met., 116, 469, 2001. 

Ni, P., Cheng, B., and Zhang, D., Inverse opal with an ultraviolet photonic gap, Appl. Phys. Lett., 80, 1879, 2002. 

Schroden, R., Al-Daous, M., Blanford, C. et al.. Optical properties of inverse opal photonic crystals, Chem. Mater., 14, 3305, 2002. 

Li, Z.-Y. and Zhang, Z.-Q., Fragility of photonic band gaps in inverse-opal photonic crystals, Phys. Rev. B, 62, 1516, 2000. 

Mfgnez, H. et al., Photonic bandgap engineering in germaninm inverse opals by chemical vapor deposition, Mater, 13, 1634, 2001. 

Figure 15.7 (a) The preparation of inverse opal photonic balls using polymer spheres and an inorganic scaffold (b) SEM image of the polymer template using balls of radius 463 2 mn. The spheres form a crystalline hexagonal array (reprinted with permission from [14] 2003 American Chemical Society). 

Theoretical modelling shows that this configuration is more favourable for the achievement of a full photonic band-gap, provided that there is a dielectric contrast of at least 2.8 [30]. This requirement is hard to achieve, and it has only been reported for silicon [31] and germanium [32] inverse opals. An alternative can be the use of metals with a Drude-like behavior of the dielectric function. When the dielectric contrast of the photonic crystal becomes extremely... 

Tessier PM, Velev OD, Kalambm- AT, Rabolt JF, Lenhoff AM, Kaler EW (2000) Assembly of gold nanostructured films templated by colloidal crystals and use in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. J Am Chem Soc 122 9554 Yan H, Blanford CF, Holland BT, Parent M, Smyrl WH, Stein A (1999) A chemical synthesis of periodic macroporous NiO and metallic Ni. Adv Mater 11 1003 Von Freymann G, John S, Schulz-Dobrick M, Vekris E, Tetreault N, Wong S, Kitaev V, Ozin GA (2004) Tungsten inverse opals The influence of absorption on the photonic band structure in the visible spectral region. Appl Phys Lett 84 224 Denny NR, Han SE, Norris DJ, Stein A (2007) Effects of thermal processes on the structure of monolithic tungsten and tungsten alloy photonic crystals. Chem Mater 19 4563... 

King JS, Graugnard E, Siunmers CJ (2006) Photoluminescence modification by high-order photonic bands in Ti02/ZnS Mn multilayer inverse opals. Appl Phys Lett 88 081109... 

Schriemer HP, Van Driel HM, Koenderink AF, Vos WL (2001) Modified spontaneous emission spectra of laser dye in inverse opal photonic crystals. Phys Rev A 63 011801... 

Shin J, Braun PV, Lee W (2010) Fast response photonic crystal pH sensor based on templated photo-polymerized hydrogel inverse opal. Sensor Actuat B Chem 150 183... 

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