This paper reports recent results from studies of atomic layer deposition for the infiltration of three-dimensional photonic crystals. Infiltration of ZnS:Mn and TiO2 are reported for SiO2-based opal templates. It has been demonstrated that high filling fractions can be achieved and that the infiltrated material can be of high crystalline quality as assessed by photoluminescence measurements. The highly conformal and uniform coatings obtained in these studies are shown to contribute significantly to the photonic band gap properties. These investigations show the advantages of atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a flexible and practical pathway for attaining high performance photonic crystal structures and optical microcavities. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.