Abstract

We have resolved a great number of Bragg peaks of photonic colloidal single crystals by synchrotron small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). We find that charge-stabilized colloids form face-centered cubic crystals at all densities up to ∼60 vol %. The colloidal particles are highly ordered on their lattice sites, which confirms that these self-organizing materials are suitable building blocks for optical photonic matter. The experiments demonstrate that synchrotron SAXS with two-dimensional detection is a powerful tool to study systems with length scales comparable to optical wavelengths.
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Authors

W. L. Vos, M. Megens, C. M. van Kats, and P. Bösecke

Year of publication

1997

Date published

10/1997

Journal

Langmuir

Volume

13

Pages

6004-6008

Keywords

3D photonic crystals, colloidal suspensions, stop bands, x-rayscattering