High Miller-index photonic bands in synthetic opals

We present a detailed study of high Miller-index (h k l) photonic bands in a-SiO2 synthetic opals. Polarized light transmission spectra of opals were studied in a wide wavelength range for all high symmetry directions on the Brillouin zone (BZ) in the face-centered cubic (fcc) lattice. It is shown that under the conditions of low dielectric contrast the dispersion of high Miller-index photonic bands is described well by the calculated dependences of Bragg wavelengths diffracted from the (h k l) crystallographic planes of the fcc lattice.