Fabrication of near infrared metallodielectric photonic crystal using metal-coated dielectric spheres

A metallodielectric photonic crystal with photonic band gaps in near infrared regime has been constructed using layer-by-layer stacking of two-dimensional micro-size metal-coated dielectric spheres array. In transmission spectra two photonic band gaps are observed at 1.38 μm and 2.46 μm, which are in agreement with theoretical calculations. Experimental results show that the photonic band gaps can be realized with about ten layers. The structure with metallic microspheres provides us a novel way for fabrication of near infrared metallic photonic crystals.