Printing scheme could yield 3-D photonic crystals

Photonic crystals are latticelike structures that can manipulate the flow of light. Materials scientists have now devised a way of making such crystals with complex three-dimensional structures that could serve as the basic elements of optical computers.

The new technique prints 3-D patterns on a surface layer by layer using a specially designed ink. “This allows us to directly write the structures we want,” says lead investigator Jennifer Lewis of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.