Temperature and voltage dependent optical properties of conducting polymerin synthetic opal as photonic crystal

Conducting polymers can be infiltrated into a nanoscale interconnected regu lar array of voids in synthetic opal. The optical properties such as transm ission and reflection spectra of the synthetic opal infiltrated with conduc ting polymers have been found to change drastically by changing temperature and voltage. Their mechanism is interpreted to be based on the temperature dependence of refractive index associated with the thermochromism and elec trochemial doping in conducting polymers. In this synthetic opal infiltrate d with conducting polymers, the optical properties have been confirmed to b e tunable by adjusting various conditions such as temperature and applied v oltage.