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Advanced Functional Materials
Volume 19, Issue 8, 1247-1253 (April 2009).

Site-Selective Self-Assembly of Colloidal Photonic Crystals

Sanna Arpiainen,1 Fredrik Jonsson,2 James R. Dekker,3 Gudrun Kocher,2 Worawut Khunsin,2 Clivia M. Sotomayor Torres,2,4 and Jouni Ahopelto.1

1 VTT Micro and Nanoelectronics P.O. Box 1000, FIN-02044 VTT (Finland).
2 Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Lee Maltings, Cork (Ireland).
3 VTT Center for MEMS and Heterogeneous integration P.O. Box 1000, FIN-02044 VTT (Finland).
4 Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology, Campus de Bellaterra, Edifici CM7, ES 08193 Bellaterra Barcelona (Spain) and Catalan Institute of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona (Spain).

Abstract

A scalable method for site-selective, directed self-assembly of colloidal opals on topologically patterned substrates is presented. Here, such substrate contains optical waveguides which couple to the colloidal crystal. The site-selectivity is achieved by a capillary network, whereas the self-assembly process is based on controlled solvent evaporation. In the deposition process, a suspension of colloidal microspheres is dispensed on the substrate and driven into the desired crystallization sites by capillary flow. The method has been applied to realize colloidal crystals from monodisperse dielectric spheres with diameters ranging from 290 to 890 nm. The method can be implemented in an industrial wafer-scale process.

Full text: PDF [493 kB] | DOI: 10.1002/adfm.200801612



S. Arpiainen et al., Adv. Funct. Mater. 19, 1247 (2009).

Figure 1. Capillary driven self-assembly (CDSA) is a scalable method for site-selective self-assembly of colloidal crystals on topologically patterned substrates, such as wafers containing integrated optics components that are to be coupled with the crystals. In the figure, a 20 μm long crystalline silica opal (thickness 10 μm) is interposed between two ridge waveguides on a photonic chip.

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Last modified Wednesday 15 Feb 2023