On-chip assembly of silicon photonic band gap crystals

Summary from only given. Three-dimensional silicon photonic band gap crystals are obtained by combining planar self-assembly of colloidal spheres with standard silicon deposition techniques. This simple and inexpensive approach, which is compatible with conventional microelectronics fabrication, yields high refractive- index inverted opals of controllable thickness that are integrated directly onto a silicon wafer. These photonic bandgap structures, which operate at telecommunications wavelengths, are planar single-crystals over large areas with very low defect densities.