Spectral and morphological changes of 3D polystyrene photonic crystals with the incorporation of alcohols

We report the Bragg diffraction due to different high Miller-index (hMi) planes in the transmission spectral characteristics of 331 nm diameter polystyrene (PS) photonic crystals (PhCs) with different alcohols as background media. The photonic stop band (PSB) features due to (3 1 1) Bragg plane are observed over the wide range (33°) of incident angles with ethanol as background. We also investigated systematically the results on the change of the volume fraction of PS microspheres and the uniform shifting of different hMi Bragg plane features when the PhC is introduced in different alcohols.

► hMi Bragg planes are studied in PS PhC with alcohol as background medium.
► Observed volume fraction of PS nanospheres is exceeded by 0.74 in different alcohols.
► Study of refractive index sensor based on the shifting of hMi Bragg planes.