Colloidal crystals for photonic applications

Abstract

Nanoparticles of silica were synthesized by a sol-gel process and were analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique was applied for self assembling the silica nanoparticles in a closely-packed hexagonal 2D structure and transferring them on glass and c-Si substrates. The morphology of the resulting 2D photonic crystal was studied by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). Finally, their optical characteristics were determined by UV-vis transmittance.