Investigation of optical properties of PMMA opals and inverse opals with YVO₄-Eu nano-phosphors

In recent years, opals and inverse opals have attracted the attention of researchers because of their potential applications in photonic devices. The idea of the periodic photonic crystal was proposed by Yablonovitch and John. The photonic crystals are in analogy with crystalline solid: electromagnetic waves propagating in the photonic crystal experienced periodic spatial variation of dielectric constant, as the de Broglie wave propagation in crystalline solids experienced periodic variation of the atomic potential. In the present work we synthesized the PMMA spheres using colloidal crystallization method and PMMA colloidal multilayer crystal were developed on the quartz substrate by self-assembly vertical deposition method. Afterward PMMA microspheres were infiltrated with YVO₄-Eu nano-phosphors followed by heating at 500 °C and above to form the inverse opals. Transmission spectra for pure PMMA, infiltrated PMMA and inverse opal of PMMA are obtained. The colloidal crystal multilayer shows a stop band at 596nm, which arises from the Bragg reflection of the (111) planes. The central position of this band gap is shifted to 608nm because of the change in the refractive index of the structure after infiltration. As the calcination was carried out at 500 °C and 600 °C, the central position of the band shifted to 483nm and 500nm respectively, because of the change in the effective refractive index of the structure and shrinkage in the direction perpendicular to the film. The resulting structure still exhibits a band gap, as the crystalline ordering is kept after the crystal is inverted. The intensity of inverse opals of PMMA is very small as compared to the bulk powder briefing the application of microstructures for the low voltage light emitting diodes (LEDs). The results show band gap and luminescent characteristics strongly depend upon infiltration. (author)