Fabrication of regular three-dimensional lattices of submicron silicon clusters in an SiO2 opal matrix

Silicon is now the most important material in modern solid-state electronics. Regular systems of silicon nanoclusters containing up to 10 14 cm −3 elements were obtained in a sublattice of opal (SiO 2 ) voids. By using three-dimensional dielectric matrix-carriers similar to opal, it may be possible to obtain three-dimensional ensembles of semiconductor nanodevices. Various parameters of these “opal-silicon” nanocomposites were measured.