Interaction of polarized light with three-dimensional opal-based photonic crystals

Abstract

We studied polarization- and angle-resolved optical transmissivity of high quality synthetic opals and found a strong anisotropy in the intensity of the transmitted light at different polarizations for most directions of propagation in the opal photonic crystal. The differential transmissivity ${T}_{\ensuremath{\Vert}}\ensuremath{-}{T}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ at two orthogonal polarizations is nearly frequency-independent for the $\ensuremath{\Gamma}\text{\ensuremath{-}}L$ incident light, but it is positive in the energy range of the {111} photonic stop gaps and negative in the energy range of the {200} stop gaps in the case of the $\ensuremath{\Gamma}\text{\ensuremath{-}}K$ incidence. The polarization-resolved transmission spectra can be qualitatively analyzed in terms of the Fresnel theory and the Brewster effect taking into account the relative orientation of the ${hkl}$ crystallographic planes in the opal structure.