Fabrication of three-dimensional photonic crystals with the Talbot self-imaging effect

Abstract

The authors experimentally demonstrate an approach to fabricating three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals (PCs) by using the Talbot self-imaging effect. A two-dimensional (2D) chess-board grating is employed to generate a 3D optical field pattern based on the Talbot effect in polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) materials for the PCs. Square and hexagonal shaped PCs with sub-micron scale are obtained and confirmed experimentally by optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy and optical diffraction patterns. It is shown that the method is feasible and convenient for 3D PCs fabrication.