Search

Fabrication of high sphericity, monodispersed microspheres (100~600 nm) of various oxides (SiO2, TiO2, ZnO, In2O3, SnO2) via sol-gel process and polystyrene (PS) microspheres (200~400 nm) via emulsion polymerization is presented. A high colloidal stability suspension was obtained by adjusting the zeta potential of such spheres and pH of the colloid. The 3-D photonic crystal (PhC) templates of opaline structure on ITO-coated glasses and silicon wafers were easily formed under electrophoretic self-assembly (EPSA) of microspheres under the influence of exerting electrical forces. Different setups of counter-electrode were attempted to establish an electrical field. The lattice constant of an ordered opal structure by EPSA can also be tuned by the electrical field gradient. Interestingly various self-assembled 3-D structures of silica microspheres in either symmetrical curvilinear profile or triangular ridges can be produced through EPSA route using specific counter-electrode setups. The measured optic properties of such 3-D PhC templates manifest photonic bandgap (PBG) based on planar-wave expansion (PWE) simulation to verify the existence of real PBG in PhC samples with tunable nanostructures. The PS PhC templates are currently used to easily transform into inverse opal structure (IOS) by infiltrating sol of other oxides with high dielectric constant (e.g. ZnO or TiO2) and filled with metallic nanoparticles (Ni or Cu) by electrochemical deposition or chemical bath deposition (CBD).