In-situ tuning of a photonic band-gap with laser pulses

A. Pasquazi, S. Stivala, G.Assanto, V. Amendola, M. Meneghetti, M. Cucini and D. Comoretto

Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 091111 (2008)

Abstract:

We report on light-induced optical tuning of colloidal photonic crystals doped with gold nanoparticles (Au-nps). By resonantly exciting the Au-np surface plasmon absorption with picosecond pulses at 0.53 Mum in a standard pump-probe setup, we observed permanent chenges in the stop band resonance around 1.7 Mum, with blue wavelength shifts as large as 30 nm and associated to a nanoparticle reshaping. Fine tuning was achieved by controlling either the pulse energy or the irradiation time