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Printing of 3D photonic crystals in titania with complete bandgap across the visible spectrum

Nature Nanotechnology (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

A photonic bandgap is a range of wavelengths wherein light is forbidden from entering a photonic crystal, similar to the electronic bandgap in semiconductors. Fabricating photonic crystals with a complete photonic bandgap in the visible spectrum presents at least two important challenges: achieving a material refractive index > ~2 and a three-dimensional patterning resolution better than ~280 nm (lattice constant of 400 nm). Here we show an approach to overcome such limitations using additive manufacturing, thus realizing high-quality, high-refractive index photonic crystals with size-tunable bandgaps across the visible spectrum. We develop a titanium ion-doped resin (Ti-Nano) for high-resolution printing by two-photon polymerization lithography. After printing, the structures are heat-treated in air to induce lattice shrinkage and produce titania nanostructures. We attain three-dimensional photonic crystals with patterning resolution as high as 180 nm and refractive index of 2.4–2.6. Optical characterization reveals ~100% reflectance within the photonic crystal bandgap in the visible range. Finally, we show capabilities in defining local defects and demonstrate proof-of-principle applications in spectrally selective perfect reflectors and chiral light discriminators.

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Fig. 1: Fabrication approach, resin formulation and micrographs of high-resolution 3D PhCs.
Fig. 2: Materials characterization of Ti-Nano.
Fig. 3: Observation of high reflectance in the visible range.
Fig. 4: Proof-of-principle applications of the 3D PhC.

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Data availability

The data that support the figures and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

J.K.W.Y. acknowledges the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore (NRF-NRFI06-2020-0005 and NRF-CRP20-2017-0004). S.T.H. acknowledges the funding support from MTC-Programmatic (grant no. M21J9b0085) administered by A*STAR. H. Liu acknowledges the A*STAR Career Development Fund (222D800032). The work made use of SUTD’s cleanroom facilities. We acknowledge the helpful discussions with E. L. Thomas (Texas A&M University).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Wang Zhang, Jiakang Min.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore, Singapore

    Wang Zhang, Hao Wang, Hongtao Wang, Xue Liang Li, Cheng-Feng Pan, Hao Li, Hui Ying Yang & Joel K. W. Yang

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Jiakang Min, Siqi Liu & Chaobin He

  3. United Microelectronics Center (CUMEC), Chongqing, China

    Jiakang Min & Xiaodong Xu

  4. College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China

    Hao Wang & Hui Yin

  5. Greater Bay Area Institute for Innovation, Hunan University, Guangzhou, China

    Hao Wang

  6. Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Republic of Singapore

    Son Tung Ha & Hailong Liu

  7. Frontiers Science Center for Flexible Electronics (FSCFE), Xi’an Institute of Flexible Electronics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, P. R. China

    Biao Zhang

  8. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, Singapore

    Cheng-Feng Pan

  9. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China

    Xiaolong Yang

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  1. Wang Zhang
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Contributions

W.Z. and J.K.W.Y. conceived the idea. W.Z. and J.M. developed the photoresists. W.Z. designed the experiments, and fabricated and characterized the samples. W.Z., Hao Wang and Hongtao Wang performed the FDTD simulation. X.L.L., S.T.H., B.Z., C.-F.P., H. Li, H. Liu, H.Y., X.Y. and S.L. assisted in the characterization. J.K.W.Y. supervised the research. All authors contributed to the writing and revision of the paper.

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Correspondence to Joel K. W. Yang.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Mingzhu Li, Sourabh Saha and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Zhang, W., Min, J., Wang, H. et al. Printing of 3D photonic crystals in titania with complete bandgap across the visible spectrum. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01780-5

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