The three-dimensional (3D) photonic band gap material is a material that there exists a full photonic band gap in which waves are forbidden to propagate whatever the polarization or the direction of propagation. In order to obtain photonic bandgap in lower range, we focus on the fabrication of PBG materials of diamond structure with TiO2 powder mixed with SiO2. The inverse epoxy structure with periodic diamond lattices in millimeter order has been fabricated by stereolithographic rapid prototyping. TiO2 slurry was filled into the epoxy structure and then cold isostatic pressing was applied. After sintering at 700K for 5hrs, the epoxy was burnt out and the designed structure was maintained perfectly. The calculated band diagram shows that there exists an absolute photonic band gap for all wave vectors. The measurement of transmission from 10 to 20 GHz in <100> direction shows that a complete band gap is formed at about 14.7-18.5 GHz. The magnitude of the maximum attenuation is as large as 30 dB at 17 GHz.
Enhanced absorption in thin silicon films by 3D photonic band gap back reflectors for photovoltaics
