Thermal emission and absorption of radiation in finite inverted-opal photonic crystals

We study theoretically the optical properties of a finite inverted-opal photonic crystal. The light-matter interaction is strongly affected by the presence of the three-dimensional photonic crystal and the alterations of the light emission and absorption processes can be used to suppress or enhance the thermal emissivity and absorptivity of the dielectric structure. We investigate the influence of the absorption present in the system on the relevant band edge frequencies that control the optical response of the photonic crystal. Our study reveals that the absorption processes cause spectral broadening and shifting of the band edge optical resonances, and determine a strong reduction of the photonic band gap spectral range. Using the angular and spectral dependence of the band edge frequencies for stop bands along different directions, we argue that by matching the blackbody emission spectrum peak with a prescribed maximum of the absorption coefficient, it is possible to achieve an angle-sensitive enhancement of the thermal emission/absorption of radiation. This result opens a way to realize a frequency-sensitive and angle-sensitive photonic crystal absorbers/emitters.