Optical transmission in triple-film hetero-opals

Angle-resolved transmission of $s$-polarized light in triple-film hetero-opals has been investigated in the spectral range including high-order photonic band gaps, and compared to the transmission of its constituent single-film opals. The interfaces do not destroy the predominantly ballistic light propagation over the studied frequency and angular ranges, but heterostructuring leads to a smoothed angular distribution of intensity of the transmitted light and to the reconstruction of the transmission minima dispersion. The interface transmission function has been extracted by comparing the transmission of the hetero-opal and its components in order to demonstrate the difference. This deviation from the superposition principle was provisionally assigned to light refraction and reflection at the photonic crystal interfaces and to the mismatch between mode group velocities in hetero-opal components.