Widely wavelength tuneable polychrome colloidal photonic crystal device
US7364673B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 9, 2003 |
| Grant date | Apr 29, 2008 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 14, 2024 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG02F2203/055
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
The present invention discloses a widely wavelength tunable polychrome colloidal photonic crystal device whose optical Bragg diffraction stop bands and higher energy bands wavelength, width and intensity can be tuned in a continuous and fine, rapid and reversible, reproducible and predictable fashion and over a broad spectral range by a controlled expansion or contraction of the colloidal photonic lattice dimension, effected by a predetermined change in the electronic configuration of the composite material. In its preferred embodiment, the material is a composite in the form of a film or a patterned film or shape of any dimension or array of shapes of any dimension comprised of an organized array of microspheres in a matrix of a cross-linked metallopolymer network with a continuously variable redox state of charge and fluid content. The chemo-mechanical and electro-mechanical optical response of the colloidal photonic crystal-metallopolymer gel is exceptionally fast and reversible, attaining its fully swollen state from the dry shrunken state and vice versa on a sub-second time-scale. These composite materials can be inverted by removal of the constituent microspheres from the afo…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.