A new method for the preparation of rare-earth doped inverse opal materials is reported. Template structures consisting of ordered stacks of PMMA-spheres were infiltrated with colloidal solutions of luminescent LaPO 4 :Ln (Ln= Tb 3þ , Eu 3þ ) nanocrystals containing a small amount of prehydrolyzed tetramethoxysilane as binder. After calcination of the PMMA-template, light-emitting photonic materials with inverse opal structure are obtained. Under UV-excitation the materials display the characteristic luminescence line emission of the lanthanide component. We show that by adjusting the diameter of the PMMA-spheres of the template the photonic band structure of the material can be controlled in a way that modifies the lanthanide luminescence.
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