Template-directed self-organized silica beads on square and Penrose-like patterns

Since a decade photonic band gap research is expanding quickly and especially with self-assembled silica beads, called opals. However, a lot of problems are arising in their preparation, in particular the difficulty to produce large frequencies band gaps in common (periodic) silica photonic materials. To solve this problem quasiperiodic opals are known to be good candidates. Actually, the high degree of isotropy and the high homogeneity of Penrose tilings make them a good way to generate complete photonic band gaps. The aim of our group is to elaborate quasiperiodic photonic crystals by directed-assembly (dip-coating) on Penrose-like patterned surfaces (through electron beam lithography). We will briefly present the different elaboration steps of our opals. Thus, the patterning methods and the dip-coating system will be discussed with our recent results in dip-coated photonic crystals.