Diffraction of light from thin-film polymethylmethacrylate opaline photonic crystals - art. no. 056603

Photonic crystals in the form of large area thin films consisting of closel y packed polymethylmethacrylate beads were sedimented on glass substrates. The high ordering of the opaline films made it possible to observe a number of fine features in the optical diffraction, including Fabry-Perot oscilla tions of the reflectivity and branching of the angular dispersion of the Br agg resonances with increase of the angle of incidence of the light beam. R esults of calculations of the photonic band structure and simulations of th e reflectance spectra agree well with experimental observations.