Engineering the refractive index of three-dimensional photonic crystals through multilayer deposition of CdS films.

Woodpile photonic crystals are amongst the preferred candidates for the next generation of photonics components. However, the photocurable resists used to produce them still lack the optical properties (high-n, non-linearity) suitable for photonics applications. A chemical bath deposition protocol has been adapted to deposit high-n/non-linear chalcogenide CdS on the surface of Ormocer woodpiles. The deposition parameters have been adjusted to obtain heterogeneous growth of CdS layers on the Ormocer surface. The layers shift the photonic band-gap and increase its amplitude by more than 15%. Software simulation confirmed that the woodpile effective refractive index underwent an excess of 30% increase.