Applications of photonic crystals in medicine

Photonic crystals are periodic optical nanostructures that affect the motion of photons in much the same way that ionic lattices affect electrons in solids. Even though porous silicon (pSi) was first obtained as early as 1956, it was long used only as electrical insulator. Unique optical and photophysical properties of this material have been studied in detail in the past decade and, in particular, the porosity has been found to affect the pSi refraction index. Until now, they have been used in many areas, but recent trends in the applications of pSi are related to biomedicine, such as drug delivery, biosensing, and photodynamic therapy. This paper concerns the medical applications in these fields and prospective analysis of photonic crystals.