Towards ceramic 3DOM-materials as novel high-temperature reflective coatings and filters for thermophotovoltaics

Studies on evaporation-induced vertical convective self-assembly as well as horizontal self-assembly are presented including inversion of the opals and deposition of heterostruc-tures. Opaline coatings were deposited on microscope slides from monodisperse particles of polystyrene and silicon dioxide with the particle sizes in the range from 400 to 1100 nm. Well defined photonic stopgaps were observed for both direct and inverted structures. We show that the horizontal deposition method facilitates self-assembly of large silica particles, so that the limitation of the conventional vertical convective self-assembly can be overcome. Successful stacking of the self-assembled polystyrene templates with unequal particle size is demonstrated.