General concepts about infill


Opal Composites


In order to expand the photonic crystal properties of artificial opals, and/or change their functionaity, high dielectric constant materials should be infiltrated in their pore lattice. See examples with

Plain opals aren't dry The trivial: water
Polymers
Polymers
Rhodamine
Rhodamine 6G
InP
InP
can be grown by CVD from metallorganic compounds
ZnO
ZnO
is a material with extraordinary properties that can be grown in the framework of the opals by CVD.
CdS
CdS where the degree of infiltration is monitored,
Germanium

Germanium

grown by wet and CVD methods and

Silicon
Silicon where full photonic band gaps are obtained.
Si and Ge
Si and Ge layers forming shells around the spheres can be grown. For these synthesis methods high temperatures are needed which impedes the use of organic beads. To circumvent this an intermediate step of silica growth ca be employed that can lead to onion-layer opals.
Antimony

Antimony Sulfide

The highest energy complete photonic band gap so far has been achieved with Sb2S3 inverted opals that were obtained either by CBD or sulfidation of antimony oxide.