Artificial Opals: Reflection Spectra and Distribution Laws of Energy Transfer

Abstract

In this work, we investigated the reflection properties of artificial opals composed of submicron silica spheres with diverse structural parameters and under the effect of light in different states. Furthermore, the primary rules how the reflection properties of artificial opals convert as these factors changing have been revealed clearly. These factors can take effects in changing the shape, value, and position of the peak of the hemispherical reflectance of artificial opals. Then we got the distribution and propagation process of the Poynting vectors corresponding to the positions of the diffraction peak and the low reflectance in the artificial opals at normal and oblique incidence of P-polarization. Comparing with the theoretical interpretation which is a little complicated and nonobjective, this paper will provide a visual result to explain the reason why the structure has high reflectance in some spectral ranges.