Atmospheric pressure MOCVD growth of crystalline InP in opals

Atmospheric pressure metal-organic chemical-vapour deposition has been used to infill the voids within synthetic opals with InP in an attempt to modify the natural photonic behaviour of these materials. The process has been optimised to increase the semiconductor loading. By increasing the extent of InP infill within the voids, which in turn increases the extent of refractive index contrast between the silica spheres and the void, it is possible to modify the opal photonic band gap in a systematic manner. The InP grown was shown to be crystalline and of high quality by use of Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy.