Abstract
Colloidal crystals (opals) made of close-packed polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) were fabricated and grown by Template-Directed methods to obtain porous materials with well-ordered periodicity and interconnected pore systems to manufacture photonic crystals. Opals were made from aqueous suspensions of monodisperse PMMA spheres with diameters between 280 and 415 nm. SEM confirmed the PMMA spheres crystallized uniformly in a face-centered cubic (FCC) array. Optical properties of synthesized pores PMMA were characterized by UV–Visible spectroscopy. It shows that the colloidal crystals possess pseudo photonic band gaps in the visible region. A combination of Bragg’s law of diffraction and Snell’s law of refraction were used to calculate the sphere diameter. Finally, colloidal crystals were subjected to Z-scan experiment under pulsed Q-switched Nd:YAG laser illumination to characterize it for third order nonlinear optical properties. Z-scan results show the change in transmittance of a beam, and the nonlinear refractive index is n2 = 9.82787 x 10-12 (cm2/GW), while the nonlinear absorption coefficient β= 0.04673908 (cm/GW). These results were attributed to enhance the self-focusing arising from Kerr effect and the two-photon absorption.
Highlights
Fabrication of porous nanostructures photonic crystals with different shapes and sizes has stimulated much interest in the last decade
Colloidal spheres with nanometer diameters are often used as building blocks for the formation porous material like photonic crystals with variable chemical composition
In the present work we addressed the results to investigate the linear and nonlinear optical properties of colloidal crystals PMMA using the different self-assembly methods
Summary
Fabrication of porous nanostructures photonic crystals with different shapes and sizes has stimulated much interest in the last decade. Colloidal spheres with nanometer diameters are often used as building blocks for the formation porous material like photonic crystals with variable chemical composition. Colloidal spheres with nanometer diameters can be synthesized from organic or inorganic materials. The most studied and best established examples of colloidal spheres as the building blocks for fabricating porous materials are inorganic silica (SiO2) and polymer latexes such as poly (methyl methacrylate) PMMA and poly styrene (PS) [4,5]. Electromagnetic waves in the material due to Bragg diffractions on lattice planes They can act as waveguides to propagate specific wavelengths in certain directions. Materials were based on inorganic crystals but in the last three decades the focus has shifted toward organic compounds due to their promising potential applications in optical signal processing [8]. In the present work we addressed the results to investigate the linear and nonlinear optical properties of colloidal crystals PMMA using the different self-assembly methods
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