American researchers have now
used a photonic crystal as a reflector for a miniature microwave antenna which could one day be fabricated on a single chip along with control electronics.
Not exact matches
Physicists have only recently devised comparable materials, called
photonic band - gap
crystals, and are now exploring their
use in phone switches, solar cells, and antennas.
«It is particularly refreshing to see simple techniques such as inkjet printing being
used to such great effect,» says Thomas Krauss who investigates
photonic crystals at the University of York.
To emulate this, the team made their
photonic crystal ink
using mesoporous silica nanoparticles, which have a large surface area and strong vapor adsorption capabilities that can be precisely controlled.
The achievement was made possible by a novel
use of a material called a
photonic crystal.
For example,
photonic crystals based on this design could be
used to make large - volume single - mode laser devices.
The authors
use the opportunities provided by nano - engineered dielectrics, the so - called
Photonic Crystals, to study both how to trap the atoms closer to each other and make them interact through the guided modes in the structure.
A second report in the current issue of the journal Science describes a 3 - D
photonic crystal, which emits light at optical communications wavelengths, manufactured
using a different approach.
The team
used lithography, in which a
crystal is built up by depositing one layer on top of another, to manufacture
photonic crystals.
Its methods could be
used to shrink the size of
photonic crystals and to develop tunable metamaterials.
Their co-authors around Peter Lodahl from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, on the other hand,
use waveguides based on
photonic crystals.
The optomechanical device
used in this experiment is called a «
photonic crystal nanocavity» (PCN).
To prove their concept, the researchers
used a three - dimensional, microwave - scale
photonic crystal constructed from layered alumina rods and containing a full bandgap — a wavelength range in which electromagnetic waves can not transmit.
Previously, the Canadian researchers made
photonic crystals using stacks of hundreds of silica nanospheres embedded in a polymer.