Letter abstract
Nature Materials 6, 202 - 205 (2007)
doi:10.1038/nmat1841
Subject Categories: Optical, photonic and optoelectronic materials | Computation, modelling and theory
Self-assembly route for photonic crystals with a bandgap in the visible region
Antti-Pekka Hynninen1,2, Job H. J. Thijssen2, Esther C. M. Vermolen2, Marjolein Dijkstra2 and Alfons van Blaaderen2
Three-dimensional photonic crystals, or periodic materials, that do not allow the propagation of photons in all directions with a wavelength in the visible region have not been experimentally fabricated, despite there being several potential structures and the interesting applications and physics that this would lead to1. We show using computer simulations that two structures that would enable a bandgap in the visible region, diamond and pyrochlore, can be self-assembled in one crystal structure from a binary colloidal dispersion. In our approach, these two structures are obtained as the large (Mg) and small (Cu) sphere components of the colloidal analogue of the MgCu2 Laves phase2, whose growth can be selected and directed using appropriate wall patterning. The method requires that the particles consist of different materials, so that one of them can be removed selectively after drying (for example, by burning or dissolution). Photonic calculations show that gaps appear at relatively low frequencies indicating that they are robust and open for modest contrast, enabling fabrication from more materials.
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5263, USA
- Soft Condensed Matter, Debye Institute, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
Correspondence to: Antti-Pekka Hynninen1,2 e-mail: hynninen@princeton.edu
Correspondence to: Alfons van Blaaderen2 e-mail: a.vanblaaderen@phys.uu.nl
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