Electrochemical Fabrication of 3-D Microperiodic Porous Materials

Recently, there has been great interest in the creation of microporous materials for a range of applications. Of particular interest are dielectric structures that exhibit periodicity in all three-dimensions, so-called photonic crystals, and a particular sub-class called photonic band gap (PBG) materials. Technological applications for such structures include low-loss waveguides, low-threshold lasers, optical switching elements, and radically improved photochemical reactors. Theoretical studies indicate materials consisting of inverse face centered cubic (fcc) and inverse close packed assemblies of air spheres in a high dielectric background will possess a full three-dimensional photonic gap when the refractive index contrast of the matrix is ~3 or greater.