Design of photonic structures by sol-gel-derived silica nanospheres

Sol-gel processing was used to obtain monosized silica spheres of 270 nm in diameter. Starting from these spheres, two different systems have been fabricated: (i) 3D Photonic Crystals by means of vertical deposition and evaporation-assisted sedimentation deposition methods; (ii) core-shell-like Er3+-activated silica spheres, where the core is the silica sphere and the shell is an Er2O3-SiO2 coating. Optical and spectroscopic assessment, as well as morphological and structural characterization of the systems, have been performed.