Synthetic opals: ordered structures for photonics

M. Bardosova; R. H. Tredgold; L. Pach; D. Whitehead; V. Jablonska

doi:10.1117/12.639046

6 December 2006 Synthetic opals: ordered structures for photonics

M. Bardosova, R. H. Tredgold, L. Pach, D. Whitehead, V. Jablonska

Proceedings Volume 5945, 14th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics; 59451O (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.639046
Event: 14th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 2005, Nitra, Slovakia

Abstract

Photonic band gap materials are expected to play an important role in making devices in optoelectronics. Their main feature is that the diffraction of light occurs in a manner analogous to the diffraction of X-rays from ordinary crystals.. One class of such materials are synthetic opals. The 3D structure of synthetic opals consists of monodispersive particles of hydrated SiO₂ having diameter of the order of several hundred nanometers. A common way to produce an ordered structure is sedimentation. The method of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) deposition has been used to obtain ordered structures and after some improvements samples of higher degree of order were made. The LB method using aNIMA alternate dipper made it possible to deposit up to 20 layers. Samples made by this method exhibit a domain structure visible to the naked eye. Domains exhibit a hexagonal symmetry and are of size ca 1 mm. The domain structure tends to disappear after the deposition of 5 or 6 layers. We studied layers obtained by scanning electron microscopy and studied their spectral characteristics. Reflectance spectra were measured for 1, 5, 10 and 20 layers. It was found that the main peak becomes sharper and more side maxima appear when the number of layers exceeds 8. Films formed from alternate layers of particles having different diameters are also discussed.

Citation Download Citation

M. Bardosova, R. H. Tredgold, L. Pach, D. Whitehead, and V. Jablonska "Synthetic opals: ordered structures for photonics", Proc. SPIE 5945, 14th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 59451O (6 December 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.639046

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