Control of the photonic crystal properties of fee-packed submicrometer SiO2 spheres by sintering

Abstract

Materials that present a three-dimensional (3D) periodic modulation of the dielectric constant have attracted much attention from theorists and experimentalists over the last decade. [1] These structures, known as photonic bandgap materials, would present interesting technological applica- tions in photonics and electronics. [2] Such applications rely on the fabrication of materials with photonic crystal prop- erties in the NIR-vis-UV (near infrared-visible-ultraviolet) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This challenge has prompted many research groups to great effort in order to obtain periodic dielectrics with a lattice parameter of less than one micrometer