Towards a full comprehension of the growth dynamics and optical response of self-assembled photonic colloidal crystal films

GABRIEL LOZANO; LUIS DORADO; RICARDO A. DEPINE; HERNÁN MÍGUEZ

JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY

Año: 2009 vol. 19 p. 185 - 190

0959-9428

Recent advances in the comprehension of the growth dynamics of colloidal crystal films opens the door to rational design of experiments aiming at fabricating lattices in which the density of intrinsic defects is minimized. Since such imperfections have a dramatic effect on scattered light of wavelength smaller than the lattice constant, the evaluation of the experimental optical response at those energy ranges, based on the comparison to rigorous calculations, is identified as the most sensitive guide to accurately evaluate the  progress towards the actual realization of defect-free colloidal crystals.