SMART PROCESSING DEVELOPMENT ON 3D CERAMIC STRUCTURES FOR TERAHERTZ WAVE APPLICATIONS

Smart processing to fabricate 3D ceramic structures such as micro photonic crystals and fractals has been developed using micro-stereolithography and sintering techniques. Micro photonic crystals with a diamond structure of ceramic/resin composites were formed from ceramic paste of TiO2, SiO2, or Al2O3 particles dispersed in photo curable resin by micro-stereolithography. Dense ceramic photonic crystals were obtained by dewaxing and sintering the performs of ceramic/resin photonic crystals. These micro photonic crystals showed deep and complete photonic band gaps in a terahertz range at around 300GHz to 500GHz. Terahertz waves could be localized in a micro-cavity designed in a ceramic photonic crystal. When a 3D micro fractal structure of Menger sponge cube is incorporated in the photonic crystal, we can expect the enhancement of localization in this dual structure.