Abstract

Experimental observations of the simultaneous presence of a polaritonic and a photonic gap in a three-dimensional photonic crystal is reported, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time. The photonic crystal was made of monodispersed silica microspheres sedimented into a face-centered-cubic structure. Silica has a polaritonic gap for wavelengths between 8 and $9.35\mathrm{\mu m}$. Four different sphere sizes were used, with diameters of $d=0.49$, 0.73, 0.99, and $1.57\mathrm{\mu m}$. The photonic crystals were studied by normal incidence infrared reflectance measurements in the wavelength interval $0.8–12\mathrm{\mu m}$. Four peaks with the a magnitude of $\sim 0.6$, originating from the periodicity of the crystal, were recorded in the interval between 1 and 4 μm. Another peak, the polaritonic reflectance peak $(\sim 0.4)$, is observed for wavelengths around $9\mathrm{\mu m}$ for all four crystals.

© 2006 Optical Society of America

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