Self-assembled three-dimensional inverted photonic crystals on a photonic chip
Three dimensional photonic crystals (PhCs) exhibiting a full photonic band gap have high potential in optical signal processing and detector applications. However, the challenges in the integration of the 3D PhCs into photonic circuits have so far hindered their exploitation in real devices. This article demonstrates the fabrication of 3D PhCs exploiting the capillary directed self-assembly (CDSA) of monodisperse colloidal silica spheres, their inversion to silicon shells, and integration with silicon waveguides. The measured transmission characteristics agree with numerical predictions and provide strong indication of a full photonic band gap in the inverted 3D photonic crystals at wavelen…
2D photonic defect layers in 3D inverted opals on Si platforms
Dielectric spheres synthesised for the fabrication of self-organized photonic crystals such as opals offer large opportunities for the design of novel nanophotonic devices. In this paper, we show a hexagonal superlattice monolayer of dielectric spheres inscribed on a 3D colloidal photonic crystal by e-beam lithography. The crystal is produced by a variation of the vertical drawing deposition method assisted by an acoustic field. The structures were chosen after simulations showed that a hexagonal super-lattice monolayer in air exhibits an even photonic band gap below the light cone if the refractive index of the spheres is higher than 1.93.
Crystallization of silica opals onto patterned silicon wafer
We report on fabrication of high quality opaline photonic crystals from large silica spheres, self-assembled in hydrophilic trenches of silicon wafers by using a drawing apparatus with a combination of stirring. The achievements here reported comprise a spatial selectivity of opal crystallization without special treatment of the wafer surface, a filling of the trenches up to the top, leading to a spatially uniform film thickness, particularly an absence of cracks within the size of the trenches, and finally a good three-dimensional order of the opal lattice even in trenches with a complex confined geometry, verified using optical measurements. The opal lattice was found to match the pattern…
Towards Si-based photonic circuits: Integrating photonic crystals in silicon-on-insulator platforms
In the context of Si-based photonics, we report on a strategy to integrate two optical components, a 3D photonic crystal light emitter and a waveguide, in a silicon-on-insulator patterned substrate. Self-assembled colloidal photonic crystals are produced with high crystalline quality and spatial selectivity. Plane wave expansion and finite-difference time-domain have been used to find suitable configurations for positioning emitters and waveguides. The first steps toward the realisation of these configurations are presented.