Letter abstract
Nature Materials 5, 942 - 945 (2006)
Published online: 26 November 2006 | doi:10.1038/nmat1786
Subject Categories: Semiconductors | Optical, photonic and optoelectronic materials
Three-dimensional silicon inverse photonic quasicrystals for infrared wavelengths
Alexandra Ledermann1,2, Ludovico Cademartiri3, Martin Hermatschweiler1,2, Costanza Toninelli4, Geoffrey A. Ozin3, Diederik S. Wiersma4, Martin Wegener1,2 & Georg von Freymann2,5
Quasicrystals1, 2, 3, 4 are a class of lattices characterized by a lack of translational symmetry. Nevertheless, the points of the lattice are deterministically arranged, obeying rotational symmetry. Thus, we expect properties that are different from both crystals and glasses. Indeed, naturally occurring electronic quasicrystals (for example, AlPdMn metal alloys) show peculiar electronic, vibrational and physico-chemical properties. Regarding artificial quasicrystals for electromagnetic waves, three-dimensional (3D) structures have recently been realized at GHz frequencies5 and 2D structures have been reported for the near-infrared region6, 7, 8, 9. Here, we report on the first fabrication and characterization of 3D quasicrystals for infrared frequencies. Using direct laser writing10, 11 combined with a silicon inversion procedure12, we achieve high-quality silicon inverse icosahedral structures. Both polymeric and silicon quasicrystals are characterized by means of electron microscopy and visible-light Laue diffraction. The diffraction patterns of structures with a local five-fold real-space symmetry axis reveal a ten-fold symmetry as required by theory for 3D structures.
-
Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Wolfgang-Gaede-Stra
e 1, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
- DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN), Universität Karlsruhe (TH), D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
- Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada
- European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy (LENS) and INFM, I-50019-Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
- Institut für Nanotechnologie, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
Correspondence to: Alexandra Ledermann1,2 e-mail: alexandra.ledermann@physik.uni-karlsruhe.de
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Bandgap Engineering Quasicrystals enter third dimensionNature Photonics News and Views (01 Feb 2007)
News on five-fold symmetryNature News and Views (22 Apr 1987)
News on five-fold symmetryNature News and Views (22 Apr 1987)
See all 17 matches for News And ViewsRESEARCH
Alloys A stable binary quasicrystalNature Brief Communication (30 Nov 2000)
Archimedean-like tiling on decagonal quasicrystalline surfacesNature Letters to Editor (24 Jul 2008)
See all 25 matches for Research
