Fabrication of 3D metallic photonic crystals by X-ray lithography

Photonic crystals (3D) represent one of the most important building blocks towards the achievement of a full optics communication technology. So far the largest interest has been attracted by two-dimensional photonic crystals because they are potentially more amenable to fabrication and much closer to application. Straightforward application of the photonic band gap concept is generally thought to require three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals that, however, represent a challenge from a fabrication point of view. Recent works have shown that 3D metallic PC can be fabricated and that they can be advantageous in the low frequency region where the metals become almost completely reflectors. In this work we show the possibility to fabricate 3D PC structures by X-ray lithography. Gold and nickel 3D photonic crystals with threefold (Yablonovite) and fourfold rotation symmetry have been fabricated with a lattice parameter ranging from 1 μm down to 300 nm. The total thickness of the 3D PC is of the order of 10 μm, a value which should allow to achieve a complete bulk behavior. This is supported by variable angle reflectance measurements, which have shown clear indications for true 3D dimensionality of our samples.