Open AccessFast self-assembly of macroscopic blue phase 3D photonic crystals
Author(s) -
Eva Otón,
Przemysław Morawiak,
Katarzyna Gaładyk,
J. M. Otón,
Wiktor Piecek
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.393197
Subject(s) - materials science , photonic crystal , micrometer , monocrystalline silicon , fabrication , optics , photonics , crystallite , optoelectronics , phase (matter) , nanotechnology , silicon , medicine , chemistry , physics , alternative medicine , organic chemistry , pathology , metallurgy
Blue phase (BP) liquid crystals are materials with unique self-assembling properties. They can be regarded as 3D photonic crystals as they organize in 3D cubic structures with sub-micrometer range periodicity and display selective optical bandgaps. Yet, the obtained BP crystals are usually polycrystalline or micrometer-sized monocrystals. Producing large BP monocrystals has proven to be a challenging and time-consuming endeavor, due to BP crystal growth being notoriously slow and the complex requirements for achieving a reasonable size and monocrystalline structure. In this work we successfully obtained large BP monocrystals (single lattice orientation) by fast self-assembly. Our fabrication process, which is about 100× faster than in previous reported research, uses relatively simple techniques, therefore demonstrating a considerable improvement towards the manufacturing of 3D photonic crystals.