Tungsten Nitride Inverse Opals by Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract

In this letter, we demonstrate a new method of creating inverse opal structures by infiltrating thin-film colloidal crystals using atomic layer deposition (ALD) and then dissolving the templating particles. ALD offers several advantages over previous techniques including improved step-coverage of high aspect ratio structures and high conformality. In addition, ALD allows for the preparation of a large variety of non-oxide materials (in particular nitrides) with desirable optoelectronic properties and a diversity of phases. Here we form a metallic tungsten nitride inverse opal as an example.