Graphene-stabilized tunable photonic crystal can make more durable & better reflective display and lasers devices

Source: The post is based on the article “Graphene-stabilized tunable photonic crystal can make more durable & better reflective display and lasers devices” published in PIB on 16th November 2022

What is the News?

Researchers have developed a soft tunable photonic crystal with enhanced thermal stability and optical purity. This has potential applications in making more durable and better reflective displays and laser devices.

What are Photonic Crystals?

Photonic crystals are optical nanostructures in which the refractive index changes periodically. 

Note: Refractive index, also called index of refraction, is the measure of the bending of a ray of light when passing from one medium into another.

This change in the refractive index affects the propagation of light in the same way that the structure of natural crystals gives rise to X-ray diffraction and that the atomic lattices (crystal structure) of semiconductors affect their conductivity of electrons.

Photonic crystals occur in nature in the form of structural coloration – like the natural microstructures that give opal its iridescent color – or animal reflectors, like the wings of certain butterflies.

What are the uses of Photonic Crystals?

Photonic crystals promise to be useful in a range of applications ranging from reflection coatings to optical computers when artificially produced or engineered in laboratories. They enable the PCs to exhibit structural colours in the visible spectral regime.

Moreover, the development of advanced photonic materials and devices using Liquid Crystals (LC) that exhibit self-organization, phase transitions and molecular orientation behaviours in response to external stimuli is attracting significant interest.