Silicon photonic crystals doped with colloidally synthesized lead salt semiconductors nanocrystals

The fabrication of two-dimensional and three-dimensional silicon photonic crystals doped with lead salt nanocrystals is reported. The silicon based photonic crystals of macro-porous silicon are fabricated by electro-chemical etching via masked silicon wafers with the periodicity along the third dimension is achieved by modulating the anodization current and voltage. The chemical solution deposition technique has been utilized to deposit thin layers of lead salts (PbS and PbSe) nanocrystals into the pores. Infrared transmission measurements revealed a considerable red-shift of the photonic band gap in a good agreement with numerical calculations.