Inverse diamond-like opal construction.

ABSTRACT

A method to fabricate a diamond structure with a complete photonic band gap in the near infrared is proposed. The procedure starts by building an opal with a body centered cubic symmetry composed of two types (organic and inorganic) of microspheres by means of a micro-robotic technique. Then, the organic particles may be selectively removed to obtain a diamond structure of inorganic particles. This method can be extended to make diamond inverse opals of silicon with full gap to mid gap ratios as large as 13% for moderate filling fractions.