There are already many sophisticated methods for obtaining photonic crystals and metamaterials. A simple way could be to obtain a material by self-organization. A very promising method for growth of self-organized micro- and nanostructures is based on directional solidification of eutectics. Eutectics are special materials which are both a MONOLITH and a MULTIPHASE MATERIAL.[1] Eutectics have two kinds of properties: additive and product properties. The additive properties depend on spatial distribution and volume fraction of the phases. The product properties depend on such structural factors as phase size or periodicity. Product propeties can exist in the eutectic but not in the particular phases of the eutectic.[1] The product properties may define metamaterials, since “metamaterials are engineered composites that exhibit superior properties that are not found in nature and not observed in the constituent materials”. The eutectic microstructure can exhibit many geometrical forms. It can be regular-lammelar, regular-rod-like, irregular, complex regular, quasi-regular, broken-lamellar, spiral and globular. The most interesting from the point of view of photonic crystals would be the microstructures with regular shapes, i.e. lamellar and rod-like. For metamaterials applications the other shapes could be also of interest - for example the percolated structures (for giant dielectric constant); or the spiral one for chiral metamaterials. The general overview of the road of eutectics towards photonics as well as new experimental data will be presented.[2]

[1] J. Llorca, and V.M. Orera, Progress in Mat. Sci., 51, 711 (2006).

[2] D. A. Pawlak, K. Kolodziejak, S. Turczynski, J. Kisielewski, K. Rozniatowski, R. Diduszko, M. Kaczkan, M. Malinowski, Chem. Mat., 18, 2450, (2006).