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Abstract:

We demonstrate that silica-acrylate materials doped with transition metal (Zr, Ti) oxide nanoparticles are suitable for the three-dimensional holographic lithography of photonic crystals with submicron periodicity and large inorganic contents. By careful choice of inorganic components, such composites could provide a route to the template-free, direct lithography of three-dimensionally ordered structures with high refractive-index contrast, submicron periodicity, and band gaps in the visible and infrared regions.

Abstract:

The term 'photonics' describes a technology whereby data transmission and processing occurs largely or entirely by means of photons. Photonic crystals are microstructured materials in which the dielectric constant is periodically modulated on a length scale comparable to the desired wavelength of operation. Multiple interference between waves scattered from each unit cell of the structure may open a 'photonic bandgap'--a range of frequencies, analogous to the electronic bandgap of a semiconductor, within which no propagating electromagnetic modes exist. Numerous device principles that exploit this property have been identified. Considerable progress has now been made in constructing two-dimensional structures using conventional lithography, but the fabrication of three-dimensional photonic crystal structures for the visible spectrum remains a considerable challenge. Here we describe a technique--three-dimensional holographic lithography--that is well suited to the production of three-dimensional structures with sub-micrometre periodicity. With this technique we have made microperiodic polymeric structures, and we have used these as templates to create complementary structures with higher refractive-index contrast.

Abstract:

We have obtained hyperfine-resolved infrared spectra of a ^PQ23(N) branch line in the v = 2-1 band of the X ³Î£^- state of the molecular dication D³⁵Cl²⁺. Analysis of the hyperfine structure allows us to estimate the magnitude of the Fermi contact interaction for the chlorine nucleus; bF(Cl) = 167 (25) MHz.