Self-Assembled Photonic Crystals and Templated Nanomaterials

Photonic crystals offer unprecedented opportunities for the realization of all-optical integrated circuits and optical computation. Colloidal self-assembly provides a much cheaper and simpler alternative to complex nanolithography in creating three-dimensional photonic crystals operating at visible and telecommunication wavelengths. The self-organized colloidal arrays can also be used as templates in fabricating nanostructured materials that have important technological applications ranging from biosensors to plasmonic devices. The present paper reviews recent advances in the assembly of colloidal photonic crystals, mainly focuses on the spin-coating technological platform that is compatible with standard microfabrication, enabling mass-fabrication of wafer-scale colloidal photonic crystals. Various templating approaches based on the spin-coating platform for making periodic nanomaterials and their potential applications are also addressed.