Photonic band structure of three-dimensional colloidal crystals with field-induced lattice structure transformation

By utilizing the electrorheological effect,three-dimensional colloidal crystals can be produced, whose latticestructure can be changed from the body-centered-tetragonal latticeto other lattices under the application of electric fields. Thispaper calculates photonic band structures of such crystals withlattice structure transformation, and demonstrates the existence ofcomplete band gaps for some intermediate lattices. Thus, it becomespossible to use the electrorheological effect to achieve photoniccrystals with desired photonic gap properties resulting from tunablestructures.