Temperature tuning of the stop band in transmission spectra of liquid-crystal infiltrated synthetic opal as tunable photonic crystal

Nematic liquid crystals and smectic liquid crystals can be infiltrated into a three-dimensional periodic array of interconnected nanosize voids in opal films prepared by sedimentation of ${\mathrm{SiO}}_{\mathrm{2}}$ spheres of various diameters. The optical stop band in the transmission spectra of opals shifts drastically by the infiltration of liquid crystals. The stop band is also found to shift at the phase transition points with changing temperature. This effect enables the tuning of optical properties of opals as a prototype tunable photonic crystal. This phenomenon can also be used as a measurement method for the refractive index.