Growth and optical studies of opal films as three-dimensional photonic crystals

Three-dimensional artificial opals showing photonic crystals properties are grown by self-assembly of polystyrene nanospheres. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of opal surfaces show domains with regular triangular and squared packing of the spheres separated by cracks whose relative fraction depends on the sample quality. The energy position of an optical pseudo gap in transmittance spectra is observed by varying the angle of incidence and is accounted for by theoretical calculations of the photonic band structure based on a plane-wave expansion method.