Nanoscale 3D printing of glass photonic crystals with near-unity reflectance in the visible spectrum

Glass is widely used as an optical material due to its high transparency, thermal stability, and mechanical properties. The ability to fabricate and sculpt glass at the nanoscale would naturally expand its application domain in nanophotonics. Here, we report an approach to print glass in three dimensions with nanoscale resolutions. We developed Glass-Nano, an organic-inorganic hybrid resin containing silicon elements. Using this high-resolution resin, three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals (PhCs) were printed with two-photon lithography. After printing, the structures were heated to high temperatures in air to remove organic components and convert the remaining material into silica glass. 3D glass PhCs with periodicities as small as 260 nanometers were obtained after sintering at 650°C. The 3D glass PhCs exhibit ∼100% reflectance in the visible range, surpassing the typical reflectances observed from similar structures in low–refractive index materials. The quality of PhCs achieved is observed in both electron microscopy and the excellent agreement with band structure calculations of idealized structures.