Inkjet‐Printed Nanocavities on a Photonic Crystal Template

The last decade has witnessed the rapid development of inkjet printing as an attractive bottom‐up microfabrication technology due to its simplicity and potentially low cost. The wealth of printable materials has been key to its widespread adoption in organic optoelectronics and biotechnology. However, its implementation in nanophotonics has so far been limited by the coarse resolution of conventional inkjet‐printing methods. In addition, the low refractive index of organic materials prevents the use of “soft‐photonics” in applications where strong light confinement is required. This study introduces a hybrid approach for creating and fine tuning high‐Q nanocavities, involving the local deposition of an organic ink on the surface of an inorganic 2D photonic crystal template using a commercially available high‐resolution inkjet printer. The controllability of this approach is demonstrated by tuning the resonance of the printed nanocavities by the number of printer passes and by the fabrication of photonic crystal molecules with controllable splitting. The versatility of this method is evidenced by the realization of nanocavities obtained by surface deposition on a blank photonic crystal. A new method for a free‐form, high‐density, material‐independent, and high‐throughput fabrication technique is thus established with a manifold of opportunities in photonic applications.     

Photonic Crystal Hydrogel Enhanced Plasmonic Staining for Multiplexed Protein Analysis

Plasmonic nanoparticles are commonly used as optical transducers in sensing applications. The optical signals resulting from the interaction of analytes and plamsonic nanoparticles are influenced by surrounding physical structures where the nanoparticles are located. This paper proposes inverse opal photonic crystal hydrogel as 3D structure to improve Raman signals from plasmonic staining. By hybridization of the plasmonic nanoparticles and photonic crystal, surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) analysis of multiplexed protein is realized. It benefits the Raman analysis by providing high‐density “hot spots” in 3D and extra enhancement of local electromagnetic field at the band edge of PhC with periodic refractive index distribution. The strong interaction of light and the hybrid 3D nanostructure offers new insights into plasmonic nanoparticle applications and biosensor design.     

Scalable Synthesis of Switchable Assemblies of Gold Nanorod Lyotropic Liquid Crystal Nanocomposites

A new class of solvent free, lyotropic liquid crystal nanocomposites based on gold nanorods (AuNRs) with high nanorod content is reported. Application of shear results in switchable, highly ordered alignment of the nanorods over several centimeters with excellent storage stability for months. For the synthesis, AuNRs are surface functionalized with a charged, covalently tethered corona, which induces fluid‐like properties. This honey‐like material can be deposited on a substrate and a high orientational order parameter of 0.72 is achieved using a simple shearing protocol. Switching shearing direction results in realignment of the AuNRs. For a film containing 75 wt% of AuNRs the alignment persists for several months. In addition to the lyotropic liquid crystal characteristics, the AuNRs films also exhibit anisotropic electrical conductivity with an order of magnitude difference between the conductivities in direction parallel and perpendicular to the alignment of the AuNRs.     

Fluorescence Enhancement on Large Area Self‐Assembled Plasmonic‐3D Photonic Crystals

Discontinuous plasmonic‐3D photonic crystal hybrid structures are fabricated in order to evaluate the coupling effect of surface plasmon resonance and the photonic stop band. The nanostructures are prepared by silver sputtering deposition on top of hydrophobic 3D photonic crystals. The localized surface plasmon resonance of the nanostructure has a symbiotic relationship with the 3D photonic stop band, leading to highly tunable characteristics. Fluorescence enhancements of conjugated polymer and quantum dot based on these hybrid structures are studied. The maximum fluorescence enhancement for the conjugated polymer of poly(5‐methoxy‐2‐(3‐sulfopropoxy)‐1,4‐phenylenevinylene) potassium salt by a factor of 87 is achieved as compared with that on a glass substrate due to the enhanced near‐field from the discontinuous plasmonic structures, strong scattering effects from rough metal surface with photonic stop band, and accelerated decay rates from metal‐coupled excited state of the fluorophore. It is demonstrated that the enhancement induced by the hybrid structures has a larger effective distance (optimum thickness ≈130 nm) than conventional plasmonic systems. It is expected that this approach has tremendous potential in the field of sensors, fluorescence‐imaging, and optoelectronic applications.     

光子晶体的能带结构、潜在应用和制备方法

光子晶体是指具有光子能带和能隙的一类新型材料,它具有奇特的调节光子传播状态的特性．本文将从光子晶体的能带结构、潜在应用和制备方法三方面对其进行综述性介绍．由于光子晶体有着非常广阔的应用前景,这一领域已成为当今世界范围内的研究热点．     

Photonic Microcapsules Containing Single‐Crystal Colloidal Arrays with Optical Anisotropy

Colloidal particles with a repulsive interparticle potential spontaneously form crystalline lattices, which are used as a motif for photonic materials. It is difficult to predict the crystal arrangement in spherical volume as lattices are incompatible with a spherical surface. Here, the optimum arrangement of charged colloids is experimentally investigated by encapsulating them in double‐emulsion drops. Under conditions of strong interparticle repulsion, the colloidal crystal rapidly grows from the surface toward the center of the microcapsule, forming an onion‐like arrangement. By contrast, for weak repulsion, crystallites slowly grow and fuse through rearrangement to form a single‐crystal phase. Single‐crystal structure is energetically favorable even for strong repulsion. Nevertheless, a high energy barrier to colloidal rearrangement kinetically arrests the onion‐like structure formed by heterogeneous nucleation. Unlike the isotropic onion‐shaped product, the anisotropic single‐crystal‐containing microcapsules selectively display—at certain orientations but not others—one of the distinct colors from the various crystal planes.     

Photonic Crystal Phosphors Integrated on a Blue LED Chip for Efficient White Light Generation

Following the proof‐of‐concept experiment in the unit structure level, photonic crystal (PhC) phosphors—structurally engineered phosphor materials based on the nanophotonics principles—are integrated with a blue light‐emitting diode (LED) chip to demonstrate a compact and efficient white light source. Red‐ or green‐emitting CdSe‐based colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are coated on a Si₃N₄ thin‐film grating to fabricate PhC phosphors. The underlying PhC structure is designed such that the photonic band‐edge modes at the zone center (k_∣∣ = 0) are tuned to the energy of the blue excitation photons. By progressively stacking the PhC phosphor plates on a blue LED chip, the blue, green, and red emission intensities can be tightly controlled to obtain white light with the desired properties. The chromaticity coordinates, (0.332, 0.341), and correlated color temperature, 5500 K, are obtained from a stack of 3 red and 11 green PhC phosphor plates; in contrast, a stack of 5 red and 16 green reference phosphor plates are required to generate a similar white light. Overall, the PhC phosphors produce 8% higher total emission intensity out of 33% less amount of CQDs than the reference phosphors.     

TiO2/SrTiO3光子晶体薄膜的制备及光电催化性能

以单分散聚苯乙烯(PS)微球在FTO导电玻璃表面自组装形成的蛋白石(Opal)结构为模板,使用溶胶-凝胶法进行TiO2前驱体的填充,退火后制备出反蛋白石结构的TiO2光子晶体薄膜。进一步通过水热反应将部分TiO2反应生成SrTiO3从而形成TiO2/SrTiO3异质结。通过多种手段技术表征了所制备材料和结构的晶型,形貌及其光电化学性能。研究结果表明,SrTiO3的负载量和晶粒大小可以通过水热反应时间调控。在经过0.5h的水热反应后,SrTiO3的负载量为9.6%,TiO2/SrTiO3薄膜保持了原有的光子晶体结构,且光电流增大了82%。TiO2/SrTiO3异质结构的形成能有效地促进光生载流子的分离,提高光电催化性能。     

Self‐Assembled Photonic Structures

Photonic crystals have proven their potential and are nowadays a familiar concept. They have been approached from many scientific and technological flanks. Among the many techniques devised to implement this technology self‐assembly has always been one of great popularity surely due to its ease of access and the richness of results offered. Self‐assembly is also probably the approach entailing more materials aspects owing to the fact that they lend themselves to be fabricated by a great many, very different methods on a vast variety of materials and to multiple purposes. To these well‐known material systems a new sibling has been born (photonic glass) expanding the paradigm of optical materials inspired by solid state physics crystal concept. It is expected that they may become an important player in the near future not only because they complement the properties of photonic crystals but because they entice the researchers’ curiosity. In this review a panorama is presented of the state of the art in this field with the view to serve a broad community concerned with materials aspects of photonic structures and more so those interested in self‐assembly.     

Asymmetric Pairing of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Droplets for Programmable Photonic Cross-Communication

The photonic cross-communication between photonic droplets has provided complex color patterns through multiple reflections, potentially serving as novel optical codes. However, the cross-communication is mostly restricted to symmetric pairs of identical droplets. Here, a design rule is reported for the asymmetric pairing of two distinct droplets to provide bright color patterns through strong cross-communication and enrich a variety of optical codes. Cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) droplets with different stopband positions and sizes are paired. The brightness of corresponding color patterns is maximized when the pairs are selected to effectively guide light along the double reflection path by stopbands of two droplets. The experimental results are in good agreement with a geometric model where the blueshift of stopbands is better described by the angles of refraction rather than reflection. The model predicts the effectiveness of pairing quantitatively, which serves as a design rule for programming the asymmetric photonic cross-communication. Moreover, three distinct droplets can be paired in triangular arrays, where all three cross-communication paths yield bright color patterns when three droplets are selected to simultaneously satisfy the rule. It is believed that asymmetric pairing of distinct CLC droplets opens new opportunities for programmable optical encoding in security and anti-counterfeiting applications.