Production of Flexible Photonic Crystal Films for Compatible Far Infrared and Laser-Band Camouflage by Vacuum Coating Method

Abstract

We prepare photonic crystal (PC) films both on rigid silicon (Si) and flexible plastic substrates by a vacuum coating method. The PC films are designed for far-infrared and laser-compatible camouflage, and we calculate their reflectance spectra by means of the characteristic matrix method using thin film optics theory. The reflectance of the 8–12 μm band and the defect locations are affected slightly, but the far-infrared and laser-compatible camouflage are still excellent. Also we prepare the PC films on polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalates (PET), which exhibit outstanding flexibility and remarkable optical properties with a reflectance of >0.95 in the far-infrared and ∼0.08 at the defect wavelength. These results provide new materials to fabricate PC films for far-infrared and laser-band applications with high flexibility and excellent camouflage compatibility.