PD12 Optical Properties of Polymer Inverted Opal Infiltrated with Liquid Crystal

Abstract

Nematic liquid crystals and smectic liquid crystals have been infiltrated into a three-dimensional periodic array of interconnected nanosize voids in polymer inverted opal films prepared from synthetic opal having SiO2 spheres of various diameters. The stop band in reflection spectrum was shifted at the phase transition points with changing temperature, which is based on the refractive index change caused by molecular rearrangement upon temperature change. This effect suggests that the tuning of optical properties of polymer inverted opals can be expected as a prototype tunable photonic crystal.