Using metallic photonic crystals as visible light sources

In this paper we study numerically and experimentally the possibility of using metallic photonic crystals (PCs) of different geometries (log-piles, direct and inverse opals) as visible light sources. It is found that by tuning geometrical parameters of a direct opal PC one can achieve substantial reduction of the emissivity in the infrared along with its increase in the visible. We take into account disorder of the PC elements in their sizes and positions, and get quantitative agreement between the numerical and experimental results. We analyze the influence of known temperature-resistant refractory host materials necessary for fixing the PC elements, and find that PC effects become completely destroyed at high temperatures due to the host absorption. Therefore, creating PC-based visible light sources requires that low-absorbing refractory materials for embedding medium be found.