Physics and Astronomy Colloquium
Tuesday, February 13, 2001, 4:10 pm
Room 118 Physics-Astronomy Building
Refreshments at 3:45 pm in Room 224
COLLOIDAL SELF-ASSEMBLY AND PHOTONIC CRYSTALS
Pierre Wiltzius, Bell Labs
Colloids have the interesting property of self-assembling into
3-dimensional periodic structures. These colloidal crystals can
be made from suspensions of monodisperse, low-index of refraction
(n ~ 1.5) silica or polystyrene spheres. If the lattice constants
of the crystals are comparable to the wavelength of visible or
near-infrared light they act like three-dimensional gratings. I will
review our progress towards making photonic band gap structures and
switchable gratings by introducing high-dielectric constant materials
and liquid crystals into the microperiodic assemblies.
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