Patent ID: 7732122

Claim:
A process for producing three-dimensional photonic crystals, comprising the process steps of a) providing an inorganic photoresist which, on illumination with energy which is greater than the electronic band gap of the photoresist, exhibits a phase alteration, b) illuminating the photoresist with a laser beam whose energy is lower than the electronic band gap of the photoresist, but whose intensity at the focal point is so high that nonlinear effects occur there, as a result of which a phase alteration occurs in the photoresist, wherein the photoresist which consists of a binary, ternary or multinary compound which comprises an element of main group VI of the periodic table, c) repeatedly moving the laser beam and the photoresist relative to one another and repeating process step b), d) developing the illuminated photoresist in an etching solution which preferably dissolves one phase of the photoresist, e) removing the developed photoresist as a photonic crystal; wherein the non-linear effects recited in step (b) are multiphotonic processes and; wherein the etching solution comprises an organic Lewisbase.