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Direct creation of three-dimensional photonic crystals by a top-down approach

Nature Materials volume 8, pages 721–725 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 can block photons in any direction and are expected to make possible their ultimate control. However, creating 3D crystals without any unintentional defects over large areas at optical wavelengths has been challenging. For example, opal-based crystals7,8,9,10 inevitably contain unintentional defects, it is difficult to increase the sizes of micro-manipulated crystals6 over ∼6 μm and producing stacked 3D crystals with thin 2D layers2,3,4,5,6 requires complicated and time-consuming processes. So far, these difficulties have hindered 3D photonic-crystal research. Here, we demonstrate a novel top–down approach to creating 3D crystals that overcomes these difficulties and significantly simplifies the process. We have developed a double-angled deep-etching method, which enables the direct creation of 3D woodpile crystals in single-crystalline silicon. A strong photonic bandgap effect with >20 dB attenuation in all directions has been achieved. Furthermore, bonding a light emitter onto or between 3D crystals created in this way has been shown to enhance or suppress spontaneous emission.

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Figure 1: Top–down method of fabrication and fabrication tolerance.
Figure 2: Calculated space-charge and potential distribution inside the ion sheath during the RIE process and the resultant ion trajectory (or etching direction).
Figure 3: Fabricated 3D photonic crystals and optical properties.
Figure 4: Spontaneous emission control by fabricated 3D photonic crystals.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by ‘Global Centre of Excellence for Education and Research on Photonics and Electronics Science and Engineering’, which is one of the education and research programs of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan.

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Author notes

  1. Shigeki Takahashi and Katsuyoshi Suzuki: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University and CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan

    Shigeki Takahashi, Katsuyoshi Suzuki, Makoto Okano, Masahiro Imada, Takeshi Nakamori, Yuji Ota, Kenji Ishizaki & Susumu Noda

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  1. Shigeki Takahashi
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Contributions

S.N. proposed the concept of the double-angled etching based on an ion-sheath control plate and supervised the whole project. S.T. developed the method of the self-consistent ion-trajectory analysis to find the most appropriate structures of the ion-sheath control plate. S.T. along with M.I. developed experimental conditions to realize the double-angled etching. M.O. and S.T. calculated the band structure, transmission and reflection spectra of the 3D crystals based on the double-angled etching. K.S. along with T.N and K.I. developed the bonding and thinning process of the very thin quantum well onto and between the 3D photonic crystals. S.T., K.S., T.N. and Y.O carried out optical measurements. S.N., S.T. and K.S. worked together to write the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Susumu Noda.

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Takahashi, S., Suzuki, K., Okano, M. et al. Direct creation of three-dimensional photonic crystals by a top-down approach. Nature Mater 8, 721–725 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2507

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