In situ tuning of a photonic band gap with laser pulses

We report on light-induced optical tuning of colloidal photonic crystals doped with gold nanoparticles (Au-nps). By resonantly exciting the Au-np surface plasmon absorption with picosecond pulses at 0.53 micron in a standard pump-probe setup, we observed permanent changes in the stop band resonance around 1.7 micron, with blue wavelength shifts as large as 30 nm and associated to a nanoparticle reshaping. Fine tuning was achieved by controlling either the pulse energy or the irradiation time.