written by Gina Mayonado, Shabbir M. Mian, Valentina Robbiano, and Franco Cacialli

We present an optical experiment on photonic crystals suitable for an advanced physics laboratory course or a senior capstone project. Photonic crystals are periodically ordered composite systems made of materials that have different dielectric constants, and can be arranged in one, two, or three dimensions. They are characterized by a bandgap that depends on the size, arrangement and dielectric constant of the microstructures that make up the crystal. In addition, the bandgap spectrally shifts with the angle of incident light. These observations are captured by the Bragg-Snell law. In this paper, we describe a vertical deposition method for growing photonic crystals from a water suspension of polystyrene microspheres, as well as a simple transmission experiment that students can perform using a USB-spectrometer to explore the Bragg-Snell law.

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Published November 17, 2015
Last Modified November 19, 2015

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