Bio-Derived Photonic Assemblies
Abstract
Biologically derived photonic assemblies were created using two different approaches. The first method employed the periodic, bi-continuous exoskeleton structure of a sea urchin as a template for the construction of a 3-dimensional (3-D) photonic crystal. The second approach involved viral particles of the Wiseana iridescent virus (W!V), assembled by various means to produce colloidal photonic crystals. In the first case, a novel cyclic size reduction scheme was devised to shrink the native sea urchin skeleton structure to the relevant size scale. This method produced high fidelity replicas of the original structure with a 50% decrease in linear dimensions at each iteration. The silicon oxycarbide (SiOC): air replica was subsequently infiltrated with tellurium (Te) and etched to increase the dielectric contrast, resulting in a Te: air structure exhibiting a sharp, well defined reflectivity peak in the mid-IR range. In the second case, sedimentation, centrifugation, and flow-assisted assembly were successfully used to guide virus particles into ordered colloidal crystals with photonic properties in the visible range. The centrifugation and flow-assisted techniques created larger area crystals with better defined spectral properties than the sedimentation technique. Significantly, the spectral properties (color) of both disordered and polycrystalline assemblies could be tuned by swelling the cross-linked colloidal crystals with water and varying processing parameters.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 31, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA430030
Entities
People
- Cohen Morris
- Edwin L. Thomas
- Rafal Mickiewicz
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology