Study of the structural evolution within polystyrene and polystyrene-gold composite colloidal crystals by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy

摘要

The simultaneous presence of hexagonal and quadratic arrangements of polystyrene microspheres in the top layers of polystyrene and gold-polystyrene composite colloidal crystals has been evidenced by both atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. It is thought that the formation of layers with the two different packing modes is in agreement with the phase transformations found in systems with confined geometries. The results of this study are relevant to the fabrication of high quality photonic crystals.