Related papers: Tunable colloidal photonic crystals
Polarizers are essential in diverse photonics applications including display [1], microscopy [2], polarimetric astrophysical observation [3], laser machining [4], and quantum information processing [5]. Whereas conventional polarizers based…
Functional materials design normally focuses on structurally-ordered systems because disorder is considered detrimental to many important physical properties. Here we challenge this paradigm by showing that particular types of…
Confining a colloidal crystal within a long narrow channel produced by two parallel walls can be used to impose a meso-scale superstructure of a predominantly mechanical elastic character [Chui et al., EPL 2008, 83, 58004]. When the crystal…
In this paper, the transfer matrix method is used to investigate the reflectance properties in a symmetric defective annular photonic crystal (APC) containing semiconductor, high-$T_c$ superconductor and a radial defect layer. Numerical…
Most paints contain pigments that absorb light and fade over time. A robust alternative can be found in nature, where structural coloration arises from the interference of light with submicron features. Plant-derived, cellulose nanocrystals…
Charged colloids can form ordered structures like Wigner crystals or glasses at very low concentrations due to long-range electrostatic repulsions. Here, we combine small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and optical experiments with…
Tunable light filters are critical components for many optical applications in which light in-coupling, out-coupling or rejection is crucial, such as lasing, sensing, photovoltaics and information and communication technology. For this…
This paper is a brief journey into the amazing realm of crystalline color superconductors. Starting from a qualitative description of superfluids, superconductors and supersolids, we show how inhomogeneous phases may arise when the system…
Increasing the light scattering efficiency of nanostructured materials is becoming an active field of research both in fundamental science and commercial applications. In this context, the challenge is to use inexpensive organic materials…
The ionic composition and pair correlations in fluid phases of realistically salt-free charged colloidal sphere suspensions are calculated in the primitive model. We obtain the number densities of all ionic species in suspension, including…
We study low-salt, binary aqueous suspensions of charged colloidal spheres of size ratio Phi = 0.57, number densities below the eutectic number density n_E, and number fractions of p = 1.00-0.40. The typical phase obtained by solidification…
In this work, we demonstrate that the nonlinear response of certain soft-matter systems can be tailored at will by appropriately engineering their optical polarizability. In particular, we deliberately synthesize stable colloidal…
Glasses have liquid-like structure, but exhibit solid-like properties. A central question concerns the relation between the structure and mechanical properties of glasses, but structural changes remain difficult to resolve. We use a novel…
We consider an electron-phonon system in two and three dimensions on square, hexagonal and cubic lattices. The model is a modification of the standard Holstein model where the optical branch is appropriately curved in order to have a…
We demonstrate the effect of introducing controlled disorder in self-assembled three-dimensional photonic crystals. Disorders are induced through controlling the self-assembling process using an electrolyte of specific concentrations.…
We introduce topological phases in Photonic Time-Crystals. Photonic Time-Crystals are materials in which the refractive index varies periodically and abruptly in time. When the refractive index changes abruptly, the light propagating in the…
We study a dense colloidal suspension confined between two quasiparallel glass plates as a model system for a supercooled liquid in confined geometries. We directly observe the three-dimensional Brownian motion of the colloidal particles…
Photonic balls are spheres tens of micrometers in diameter containing assemblies of nanoparticles or nanopores with a spacing comparable to the wavelength of light. When these nanoscale features are disordered, but still correlated, the…
Coherent acoustic radial oscillations of thin spherical gold shells of submicron diameter excited by an ultrashort optical pulse are observed in the form of pronounced modulations of the transient reflectivity on a subnanosecond time scale.…
It is shown, for the first time, that negative refraction with positive phase velocity refraction can be realized (and controlled) over a wide range of frequency on the first (lowest) pass band of simple photonic and phononic crystals.…