FABRICATION OF HIGH-QUALITY PHOTONIC CRYSTALS VIA SELF-ASSEMBLY APPROACH AND EXPLORATION OF THEIR APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Photonic crystals (PhCs) are periodic optical nanostructures designed to affect the motion of photons in a similar way that periodicity of a semiconductor crystal affects the motion of electrons. For a longer time, the driving force has been the photonic bandgap (PBG), a range of energies where the propagation of light is completely forbidden. The PBG allows the design of PhCs that localize, guide and bend light at submicrometer length scales, providing opportunities for the creation of micro-optical devices and integrated optical circuits to realize the revolution in photonics. However, various defects and polycrystalline in the PhCs may restrict the real applications of PhCs. The fabrication of high-quality (defect-free, crack-free) PhCs in relatively large area has attracted tremendous interest in recent years. In this thesis work, in order to fabricate high-quality colloidal crystals (CCs) for practical applications, a variety of approaches were developed, and various colloidal crystal structures were fabricated.