METHOD OF PRODUCING 3-D PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBERS

摘要

The invention described herein is broadly directed to a method of making 3D inverse colloidal crystal fibers made of silicon. In particular the invention relates to the general utilization of controlled size and controlled shape and controlled length microchannel surface relief patterns that have been lithographically defined in silicon substrates for the geometrically confined crystallization of silica microspheres to form highly ordered and oriented colloidal photonic crystal microchannel templates and the utilization of such templates for creating, through silicon infiltration synthetic strategies, colloidal silicon-silica photonic crystal composite materials thereof and the subsequent removal of the silica template and detachment of these colloidal silicon-silica photonic crystal composite materials from the silicon substrate by etching in a fluoride-based medium to create oriented free standing 3D inverse colloidal photonic crystal fibers. These novel fiber constructs provide a new class of optical components with a complete PBG along transverse and longitudinal directions of the microfiber axis that can be tailored to lie in the optical telecommunication wavelength range.