Colloidal crystals are promising structures for photonic applications requiring dynamic control over optical properties. However, for ease of processing and reconfigurability, the crystals should be encapsulated to form 'ink' capsules rather than confined in a thin film. Here we demonstrate a class of encapsulated colloidal photonic structures whose optical properties can be controlled through ...

Electromagnetic waves are known to exert optical forces on particles through radiation pressure. It was hypothesized previously that electromagnetic waves inside left-handed metamaterials produce negative radiation pressure. Here we numerically examine optical forces inside left-handed photonic crystals demonstrating negative refraction and reversed phase propagation. We demonstrate that even t...

Spectral and directional reshaping of fluorescence from dye molecules embedded in self-assembled hybrid plasmonic-photonic crystals has been examined. The hybrid crystals comprise two-dimensional hexagonal arrays of dye-doped dielectric nanospheres, capped with silver semishells. Comparing the reshaped fluorescence spectra with measured transmission/reflection spectra and numerical calculations...

The method of multiple scales is used to develop a procedure for obtaining coupled-mode equations in low-contrast nonlinear photonic crystals periodic in one, two, or three dimensions. Coupled-mode equations for three coupled modes in a two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal lattice are obtained in this way and solved numerically. We show that 2D low-contrast nonlinear photonic crystals support optical...

Magnetic photonic crystals are spatially periodic dielectric composites with at least one of the constitutive components being a magnetically polarized material. We show that the electrodynamic properties of magnetic photonic crystals with proper configuration correspond to those of hypothetical media with huge linear magnetoelectric effect. In particular, such composites can display strong asy...

We have observed a dramatic enhancement of third-harmonic generation in 3D polystyrene-air photonic crystals pumped by a near infrared laser beam. As the pump wavelength is tuned, the peak of the enhancement occurs when the third-harmonic wavelength approaches the short-wavelength edge of the band gap. We show that the origin of the enhancement is phase matching provided by the periodic structu...

The spontaneous emission decay dynamics of nanocrystal quantum dots embedded into biotemplated titania photonic crystals with a diamond-based lattice are investigated. Modification of the decay rate of quantum dot emission over wide frequency bandwidths in the visible by the photonic crystals is observed. Frequency-dependent analysis reveals both inhibition and enhancement of emission with a ra...

Coherent thermal transport, using thermal channels with length smaller than the mean-free path of the thermal carriers, is important for fundamental study of thermal processes and for new device opportunities in thermal management.1–11 In this Brief Report, we consider a coherent thermal channel formed by cascading a series of nonidentical photonic crystals. We show that its thermal conductance...

In the first part of this introductory review we outline the developments in photonic band gap materials from the physics of photonic band gap formation to the fabrication and potential applications of photonic crystals. We briefly describe the analogies between electron and photon localization, present a simple model of a band structure calculation and describe some of the techniques used for ...

We theoretically study second-harmonic generation in two-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystals and obtain a unified expression that combines nonlinear Raman-Nath diffraction, Čerenkov-type second-harmonic generation, and nonlinear Bragg diffraction. The analytical solution is deduced, and the theoretical result coincides well with the nonlinear Raman-Nath, nonlinear Čerenkov, and nonlinear Br...