Introducing high-quality planar defects into colloidal crystals via self-assembly at the air/water interface

摘要

We demonstrate a facile method for fabrication of colloidal crystals containing a planar defect by using PS@SiO_2 core-shell spheres as building blocks. A monolayer of solid spheres was embedded in core-shell colloidal crystals serving as the defect layer, which formed by means of self-assembly at the air/water interface. Compared with previous methods, this fabrication method results in pronounced passbands in the band gaps of the colloidal photonic crystal. The FWHM of the obtained passband is only ～16nm, which is narrower than the previously reported results. The influence of the defect layer thickness on the optical properties of these sandwiched structures was also investigated. No high-cost processes or specific equipment is needed in our approach. Inverse opals with planar defects can be obtained via calcination of the PS cores, without the need of infiltration. The experimental results are in good agreement with simulations performed using the FDTD method.