Graduate/Postgraduate Student Opportunities & Scholarships
Radiation dynamics in (inverse) opals with high refractive index
Supervisors: Judith Dawes, Mick Withford and Mike Steel
Photonic crystals offer the prospect that we may control the fundamental properties of an emitter such as its radiative lifetime, and indeed restrict the propagation of light whose frequency lies within the photonic bandgap of the material. Our vision is to create photonic devices within 3D photonic crystals in which light is confined within waveguide structures by photonic bandgaps. We will examine the effect of photonic crystal bandgaps at high refractive index contrast (>2.5) on light propagating in inverse opals fabricated in materials such as chalcogenide
glasses. In addition we aim to introduce light emitters into the opal with an aim of creating low threshhold lasers.