Morphology and structure of SbSI photonic crystals fabricated with different approaches

In this work we present three-dimensional photonic crystals of air spheres in antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI). The initial opal matrices with a face centered cubic (fcc) lattice, were prepared from monosized silicon spheres by gravity sedimentation. Composite opal-SbSI structures were obtained by infiltration of the voids in opals with melted SbSI. Two different cooling methods in processes of infiltration were applied. To obtain the inverted SbSI opal consistent of air spheres in SbSI the original opal template was removed by etching in HF acid. The inverted opals were characterized by using techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.