The rapid preparation of large-scale CdS opal photonic crystals and study of the optical properties

Abstract

Monodispersed silica microspheres of 270 nm are synthesized by a colloidal solution method. Larger scale perfect three-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs) are rapidly prepared using the evaporation of acetone to self-assemble the microspheres on quartz substrates by vertical deposition methods. We find that the pseudo-photonic band gap (PBG) of the PC structure changes with increasing annealing temperature; it drastically shifts from 450 nm for as-grown crystals to 409 nm for annealing at 800 °C. CdS photonic crystals are formed by infiltrating CdS nanocrystals of 6 nm into the SiO₂ PC structure. The transmission and spontaneous emission characteristics of CdS PCs have been investigated. The clear dip in the spontaneous emission spectrum relates to the photonic band gap of CdS PCs, indicating that the spontaneous emission is inhibited in the region of the PBG. The emission band of CdS PCs becomes narrower and sharper than that of CdS nanocrystals; this demonstrates that the emission band and intensity of the luminescent devices will be tuned by controlling the position of the PBG.