From Opals to Optics:
Building Photonic Band Gaps in Nanostructured Materials
Vicki Colvin*
Department of Chemistry, Rice University,
Houston, TX 77005 USA
This is an abstract
for a presentation given at the
Ninth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
There will be a link from here to the full article when it is
available on the web.
The gemstone opal exhibits a brilliant visible iridescence due to the regular spacing of sub-micron colloids which comprise its structure. This natural motif can be replicated in the laboratory, and artificial opals can be cast as thin films of controlled thickness using colloidal assembly techniques. Numerous solids, ranging from polymers to metals, can be cast around the colloidal network and the colloids subsequently removed. The macroporous materials that result have arrays of spherical cavities interconnected by smaller windows. The diffractive properties of these inside-out structures are even stronger than the host opal, and can in some cases can possess nearly complete photonic band gaps at visible wavelengths. In addition, these sponge-like materials can serve as hosts for further growth of nanostructured solids with complex architectures. We demonstrate this using porous PMMA to construct solid, hollow and core-shell nanospheres in a variety of shapes.
*Corresponding Address:
Vicki Colvin
MS 60 Department of Chemistry
6100 Main Street, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005 USA
Phone: 713-348-5741
Fax: 713-348-2578
Email: [email protected]
http://nanonet.rice.edu/
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