Three-Dimensional Single Gyroid Photonic Crystals with a Mid-Infrared Bandgap

A gyroid structure is a distinct morphology that is triply periodic and consists of minimal isosurfaces containing no straight lines. We have designed and synthesized amorphous silicon (a-Si) mid-infrared gyroid photonic crystals that exhibit a complete bandgap in infrared spectroscopy measurements. Photonic crystals were synthesized by deposition of a-Si/Al2O3 coatings onto a sacrificial polymer scaffold defined by two-photon lithography. We observed a 100% reflectance at 7.5 mu m for single gyroids with a unit cell size of 4.5 mu m, in agreement with the photonic bandgap position predicted from full-wave electromagnetic simulations, whereas the observed reflection peak shifted to 8 mu m for a 5.5 mu m unit cell size. This approach represents a simulation-fabrication-characterization platform to realize three-dimensional gyroid photonic crystals with well-defined dimensions in real space and tailored properties in momentum space.