Photonic crystal-like material synthesized by self-organization

We have synthesized a material resembling photonic crystals, through self-organization, which is a chemical route to synthesize such materials. The starting material, which was obtained by self-organization, has a distribution of quasi-periodic silica fibers in a monocrystalline matrix. The fibers and the crystalline matrix have different dielectric constants and refractive indices. They react differently to HF acid, which we exploit here for removing the fibers from the matrix without significantly affecting the crystal. So far this has been successful until a length limit of 0.5 mm.