Interferometric technique for the measurement of photonic band structure in colloidal crystals.
Under suitable conditions polystyrene microsphere colloids form photonic crystals capable of diffracting visible light, analogous to x-ray diffraction from atomic crystal planes. The lattice spacings of these crystals can be tailored to satisfy the Bragg condition along a certain direction for a particular desired wavelength. A modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer has been developed for accurately measuring relative phase shifts of light propagating in photonic crystals to determine the dispersion resulting from photonic band structure near the band edges.
Tarhan
I I
II
Zinkin
M P
MP
Watson
G H
GH