Vertical Deposition Method for the Fabrication of High-Quality Polystyrene Colloidal Photonic Crystals

Monodispersed polystyrene(PS) microspheres were prepared by emulsion polymerization.The partical size was about 262 nm.High-quality PS colloidal photonic crystals were fabricated quickly from aqueous colloidal solutions by a vertical deposition method at certain temperature and liquid surface dropping velocities and its photonic band gap was at 626 nm.The structure of sample is shown to be face-centered-cubic(fcc) by scanning electron microscopy(SEM).With particles of 262 nm in diameter,at evaporation temperature of(55 ℃,) 0.3% weight fraction,liquid surface dropping velocity of 3 mm each day,high-quality colloidal photonic crystals can be fabricated.The colloidal photonic crystals provide a relatively ideal template for the creation of three-dimensionally ordered porous structures with a full photonic band gap through templating technique.