Tunable Optical Stop Band Utilizing Thermochromism of Synthetic Opal Infiltrated with Conducting Polymer

Conducting polymers can be infiltrated into a nanoscale interconnected regular array of voids in synthetic opal in the liquid state upon heating. Optical properties such as transmission and reflection spectra of the synthetic opal infiltrated with conducting polymer poly(3-alkylthiophene) have been found to change drastically with temperature. The control of the stop band by utilizing the change of the refractive index associated with the thermochromism of synthetic opal infiltrated with conducting polymer is proposed as an example of a tunable photonic crystal.