The observed polarization anisotropy of optical properties is caused by symmetry characterization of polarized light and opal structure. The obtained results agree fairly well with calculated photonic band structure, which is also compared with predictions based on the group theory. | Journal of Science and Technology 54 (1A) (2016) 143-150 POLARIZATION DEPENDENCE IN OPTICAL REFLECTION AND TRANSMISSION OF OPAL PHOTONIC CRYSTALS Le Dac Tuyen1, *, Do Danh Bich2, Du Thi Xuan Thao1, Le Quoc Minh3, Chia Chen Hsu4 1 Department of Physics, Hanoi University of Mining and Geology, 18 Pho Vien Street, Hanoi, Vietnam 2 Department of Physics, Hanoi National University of Education, 136 Xuan Thuy Street, Hanoi, Vietnam 3 Institute of Materials Science, VAST, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet Road, Hanoi, Vietnam 4 Department of Physics, National Chung Cheng University, 168 University Road, Chia Yi 621, Taiwan * Email: ledactuyen@ Received: 5 September 2015; Accepted for publication: 29 October 2015 ABSTRACT High-quality opal photonic crystals were fabricated by self-assembling of monodispersed SiO2 nanospheres with a thermal-assistant cell method. The angle- and polarization-resolved optical reflection and transmission of an artificial opal were studied. A strong anisotropy in the intensity and the full width at half maximum of reflection and transmission spectra of the s- and p-polarized light was observed along the L-U (L-K) direction of the first Brillouin zone, and these differences become more pronounced in the vicinity U (K) point. The observed polarization anisotropy of optical properties is caused by symmetry characterization of polarized light and opal structure. The obtained results agree fairly well with calculated photonic band structure, which is also compared with predictions based on the group theory. Keywords: photonic crystals, opal, polarization. 1. INTRODUCTION Photonic crystals (PhCs) have been attracted intense interest due to a variety of possible applications in optoelectronics [1 - 4]. Interaction of an electromagnetic field with PhCs is accompanied by remarkable optical diffraction phenomena, which can be assigned to strong modification of the photon energy spectrum inside the structure [5, 6]. PhCs allow one to create photonic band
