1. Bio-Templated Photonic Crystals with a Complete Band Gap
Michael H. Bartl, Department of Chemistry, University of Utah
We developed a sol-gel bio-templation route via a sacrificial silica intermediary to transform biological structures into high-dielectric photonic crystals with a complete band gap. Spontaneous emission dynamics studies show that these band gap materials strongly modify the photonic density of states, which should make these materials interesting candidates for enhanced solar energy conversion.