4.8 Article

Large three-dimensional photonic crystals based on monocrystalline liquid crystal blue phases

Journal

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 8, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00822-y

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Funding

  1. Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development (AOARD)
  2. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) [15IOA086]
  3. Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan [MOST 104-2628-E-110-003-MY2, MOST 103-2112-M-110-012-MY3]
  4. [AFOSR-FA9550-14-1-0297]

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Although there have been intense efforts to fabricate large three-dimensional photonic crystals in order to realize their full potential, the technologies developed so far are still beset with various material processing and cost issues. Conventional top-down fabrications are costly and time-consuming, whereas natural self-assembly and bottom-up fabrications often result in high defect density and limited dimensions. Here we report the fabrication of extraordinarily large monocrystalline photonic crystals by controlling the self-assembly processes which occur in unique phases of liquid crystals that exhibit three-dimensional photonic-crystalline properties called liquid-crystal blue phases. In particular, we have developed a gradient-temperature technique that enables three-dimensional photonic crystals to grow to lateral dimensions of similar to 1 cm (similar to 30,000 of unit cells) and thickness of similar to 100 mu m (similar to 300 unit cells). These giant single crystals exhibit extraordinarily sharp photonic bandgaps with high reflectivity, long-range periodicity in all dimensions and well-defined lattice orientation.

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