Engineered disorder and light propagation in a planar photonic glass.

The interaction of light with matter strongly depends on the structure of the latter at wavelength scale. Ordered systems interact with light via collective modes, giving rise to diffraction. In contrast, completely disordered systems are dominated by Mie resonances of individual particles and random scattering. However, less clear is the transition regime in between these two extremes, where diffraction, Mie resonances and near-field interaction between individual scatterers interplay. Here, we probe this transitional regime by creating colloidal crystals with controlled disorder from two-dimensional self-assembly of bidisperse spheres. Choosing the particle size in a way that the small particles are transparent in the spectral region of interest enables us to probe in detail the effect of increasing positional disorder on the optical properties of the large spheres. With increasing disorder a transition from a collective optical response characterized by diffractive resonances to single particles scattering represented by Mie resonances occurs. In between these extremes, we identify an intermediate, hopping-like light transport regime mediated by resonant interactions between individual spheres. These results suggest that different levels of disorder, characterized not only by absence of long range order but also by differences in short-range correlation and interparticle distance, exist in colloidal glasses.

Hybrid colloidal plasmonic-photonic crystals.

We review the recently emerged class of hybrid metal-dielectric colloidal photonic crystals. The hybrid approach is understood as the combination of a dielectric photonic crystal with a continuous metal film. It allows to achieve a strong modification of the optical properties of photonic crystals by involving the light scattering at electronic excitations in the metal component into moulding of the light flow in series to the diffraction resonances occurring in the body of the photonic crystal. We consider different realizations of hybrid plasmonic-photonic crystals based on two- and three-dimensional colloidal photonic crystals in association with flat and corrugated metal films. In agreement with model calculations, different resonance phenomena determine the optical response of hybrid crystals leading to a broadly tuneable functionality of these crystals.

Resonance amplification of defect emission in ZnO-inverted opal.

Transformation of broadband emission of oxygen defects in the carcass of ZnO-inverted opal into a multiple-mode amplified spontaneous emission band has been observed in the spectral interval of a photonic bandgap upon increasing excitation intensity. The mode structure has been assigned to amplification of emission coupled to resonance modes of the self-selected distributed Bragg resonator. The surprisingly low 2 W/cm(2) onset of amplification has been explained by the long radiative decay time of defect states populated according to the three-level excitation scheme. The decrease of emission intensity between amplified peaks has been associated with the saturation of the ZnO defect emission.

Light-emitting diodes with semiconductor nanocrystals.

Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals are promising luminophores for creating a new generation of electroluminescence devices. Research on semiconductor nanocrystal based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has made remarkable advances in just one decade: the external quantum efficiency has improved by over two orders of magnitude and highly saturated color emission is now the norm. Although the device efficiencies are still more than an order of magnitude lower than those of the purely organic LEDs there are potential advantages associated with nanocrystal-based devices, such as a spectrally pure emission color, which will certainly merit future research. Further developments of nanocrystal-based LEDs will be improving material stability, understanding and controlling chemical and physical phenomena at the interfaces, and optimizing charge injection and charge transport.

Chemosorption-related shift of a photonic bandgap in photoconductive ZnO inverse opal.

A change of up to 40% of the relative transmission at the photonic bandgap edge has been observed in photoconductive inverted ZnO opals under ultraviolet laser irradiation. This effect has been related to the irradiation-stimulated change of the refraction index of the photonic crystal. The desorption (chemosorption) of oxygen molecules on the surface of the ZnO backbone leading to destruction (formation) of a depletion layer at the ZnO surface has been suggested as the mechanism responsible for the slow variation of polarizability of the inverted ZnO opal.

Integration of self-assembled three-dimensional photonic crystals onto structured silicon wafers.

We report on the fabrication of high-quality opaline photonic crystals from large silica spheres (diameter of 890 nm), self-assembled in hydrophilic trenches of silicon wafers by using a novel technique coined a combination of "lifting and stirring". The achievements reported here 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 3D 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 precisely in width as well as depth, providing an important step toward applications of opals in integrated optics.