PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | September 14, 2006
Proc. SPIE. 6331, Linear and Nonlinear Optics of Organic Materials VI
KEYWORDS: Carbon, Diffraction, Refractive index, Polymers, Metals, Glasses, Silicon, Photonic crystals, Chemical vapor deposition, Infrared radiation
Photonic crystals have now started to make the transition from basic to applied research, with new
materials systems and device results being published on a frequent basis. While a number of
photonic crystals have been made using organic materials, the lack of high index organic materials
has impeded their development. We have investigated several novel high index organic systems for
use in both 2-D and 3-D photonic crystals. 2-D photonic crystal templates were made by a rapid
multibeam interference method in the photoresist SU-8, using 532nm laser radiation. These samples,
typically on glass, were then infiltrated by a number of methods including from solution and melt, as
well through chemical vapor deposition. Solutions of a titanium precursor with a cured refractive
index of 2.1 at 633nm were infiltrated and cured in the SU-8 structure, with the infiltrant deposited by
both by spin coating and casting. The resulting structure was shown to preserve the six-fold
symmetry of the initial photonic crystal and subsequent firing at high temperature effectively
removed the SU-8 template. We have also explored the infiltration of nanoamorphous carbon into
the photonic crystals using chemical vapor deposition. This material, which is essentially a
carbon-silicon ceramic, has exceptional infrared optical properties with a refractive index > 2 for
wavelengths beyond 2 μm. The SU-8 polymer template has been shown to survive the CVD
deposition process and the resulting infiltrated structure also preserves the initial PC symmetry. A
series of metal-like PCs with a full range of properties is enabled by the ability to dope the
nanoamorphous carbon with metals that possess exceptional refractive indices in the infrared regions
of interest. We have also investigated the potential for nonlinear optical devices based upon
azobenzene copolymer infiltrated silicon PCs and demonstrate the excellent properties of this material
with respect to all-optical effects.
