Band Structure of Photonic Crystals Fabricated by Two-Photon Polymerization

We study theoretically the band-gap structures of several types of three-dimensional photonic crystals with the fcc lattice symmetry: synthetic opals, inverted yablonovite and woodpile. The samples of inverted yablonovite, inverted yablonovite with a glassy superstructure and woodpile are fabricated by two-photon polymerization through a direct laser writing technique, which allows the creation of complex three-dimensional photonic crystals with a resolution better than 100 nm. A material is polymerized along the trace of a moving laser focus, thus enabling the fabrication of any desirable three-dimensional structure by direct “recording” into the volume of a photosensitive material. The correspondence of the structures of the fabricated samples to the expected fcc lattices is confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. We discuss theoretically how the complete photonic band-gap is modified by structural and dielectric parameters. We demonstrate that the photonic properties of opal and yablonovite are opposite: the complete photonic band gap appears in the inverted opal, and direct yablonovite is absent in direct opal and inverted yablonovite.