Introduction of a planar defect into colloidal photonic-crystal films and their optical properties

A defect mode in the bandgap of photonic crystals is a key factor for potential applications, emission, bandpass filter, sensor, and low throughput laser. A Fabry-Perot type cavity was known as a multilayer film with a planar defect or a one-dimensional colloidal photonic crystal film with a planar defect. In this work, we have developed a simple and easy method by two colloidal crystals, i.e., face center cubic (fcc) structure, films bonded together by hot pressing to form a sandwich structure, and clear defect mode was observed in the photonic bandgap of fcc (1 1 1) direction. We have investigated the effect of the thickness of the defect layer in the sandwich structure on the optical properties. A single or double dips appeared in Bragg's diffraction peak at different planar defect thicknesses. In addition, a simulation of the reflection spectra of multilayer film calculation showed the defect mode is much influenced by the planar defect thickness.