ИСТИНА

Previously, there were developed in our laboratory a new technique for deposition of photonic crystal lines consisting of SiO2 close-packed microspheres onto a glass surface at increased temperature and lower SiO2-concentration. Here we vary temperature and SiO2-concentration conditions for deposition of silica microspheres onto ITO and FTO. We have discovered that ITO and FTO need inevitably higher temperature and lower concentration compared with glass for the growth of the separated photonic crystal lines upon its surface. Whereas fine deposition of continuous SiO2-opal film onto ITO substrate with precisely even width was observed at the room temperature and normal concentration as it was previously discovered for the glass. Moreover, we coated glass-supported continuous SiO2-opal film with gold using thermal vacuum sputtering, as a result photonic stop-band slightly shrank due to the decreased transparency of the material. However, this material can be used as a SERS-active substrate because of the presence of naturally formed hotspots between the gold-coated spheres on its surface. Afterwards, continuous/lined ETPTA photonic crystals were prepared using photocurable resin polymerization reaction and SiO2-opals as a template. As a result photonic stop-band were red-shifted and extensively deepened. Finally, manifold infiltration of continuous/lined ETPTA-opal with water-ethanol solution of gold nanoparticles (NPs) were conducted by repeating up to 30 cycles of dipping, drying and washing steps. Gold NPs infiltration provides positive effect of deepening photonic stop-band of ETPTA-opals related to the resonant absorption of NPs, as it was previously discovered in our laboratory, however, last 15 cycles does not yield anymore. Keywords: SiO2; opal; photonic crystal; photonic stop-band; gold nanoparticles.