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The study, which is published in a recent issue of Optics Express, may lead to new insights into photonic crystals that could assist in the development of new applications.

As the researchers explain, photonic crystals are materials with an intricate three-dimensional structure that manipulates light in ways similar to how semiconductors control electrons. Photonic crystals have a periodic structure with a length scale on the order of the wavelength of light. An example of a photonic crystal found in nature is the gem opal, which consists of a regular array of tiny silicate spheres that are ordered like atoms in a crystal lattice, but on a length scale a thousand times larger than the atoms in a photonic crystal.