Self-assembly of 3-D PBG materials

Serguei Grabtchak, Stephen W. Leonard , Jessica P. Mondia , Henry M. van Driel,
Ovidiu Toader, Sajeev John
Department of Physics, 60 Saint George St., University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A7

Emmanuel Chomski , Geoffrey A. Ozin
Department of Chemistry, 80 Saint George St., University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3H6

Alvaro Blanco, Marta Ibisate, Cefe Lopez, Francisco Meseguer, Hernan Miguez
Unidad Asociada (CSIC-UPV) Universidad Politécnica, 46022 Valencia, Spain and Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), Cantoblanco 28049, Madrid, Spain

Herein, we report the synthesis, characterization, and photonic band structure of a high quality, large scale, face-centered cubic PBG material. It consists of pure silicon and exhibits a complete three-dimensional PBG centered on a wavelength of 1.46 mm. Silicon inverse opals are obtained by highly controlled infiltration (chemical vapor deposition) of disilane into a self-assembling opal template, wetting of a thick silicon layer on the interior surfaces of the template, and subsequent removal of the template. We infer the presence of a complete three-dimensional photonic band gap by comparing the measured reflectivity spectrum with results from band structure calculations.