Tunable, elastic, crack-free photonic crystals and polymer opal templates with pre-determined orientation for defect inscription

Self-assembled polymer opal colloidal crystals can be useful either as templates for processing, followed by inversion with high-index material (leading to waveguide structures inside a full-band-gap photonic crystal) or as a stop-band material that has special mechanical properties, not achievable with the inorganic high-index-materials. Both options are explored in the present contribution.