Bragg-regime engineering by columnar thinning of chiral sculptured thin films

Using a microscopic-to-continuum model of sculptured thin films (STFs) as two-phase composite materials, we have examined the optical consequences of post-deposition, uniform, columnar thinning of chiral STFs. Our results indicate that thinning processes such as etching and bioreduction can be useful in engineering the Bragg regimes of STFs after deposition. Uniform columnar thinning blue-shifts the Bragg regime and can improve the Bragg features of a chiral STF.