Holographic assembly of quasicrystalline photonic heterostructures

• DOI: 10.1364/opex.13.005434
• Publication Date: 2005-09-22T21:11:13Z
• Authors: Yael Roichman; David G. Grier
• Keywords: Condensed Matter - Materials Science; Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft); Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci); FOS: Physical sciences; 02 engineering and technology; Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter; 0210 nano-technology

Quasicrystals have a higher degree of rotational and point-reflection symmetry than conventional crystals. As a result, quasicrystalline heterostructures fabricated from dielectric materials with micrometer-scale features exhibit interesting and useful optical properties including large photonic bandgaps in two-dimensional systems. We demonstrate the holographic assembly of two-dimensional and three-dimensional dielectric quasicrystalline heterostructures, including structures with specifically engineered defects. The highly uniform quasiperiodic arrays of optical traps used in this process also provide model aperiodic potential energy landscapes for fundamental studies of transport and phase transitions in soft condensed matter systems.<br/>3 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Optics Express<br/>