Synthetic opal and photonic crystal

Abstract

A colloidal suspension of particles is rapidly self-assembled with a minimum number of defects into a densely packed array of particles on a substrate under simultaneous sedimentation and annealing forces. The particles may be ordered as an opal structure. Optionally, the synthesized structure may incorporate an electrolyte and be used as a sacrificial form for micromoulding an inverse structure. The inverse structure may exhibit a photonic band gap. Optionally, necking between particles may be adjusted after micromoulding. Furthermore, a shell may alter physical properties, such as protecting a thermally stimulated photonic band gap device. These low cost methods allow more applications to become commercially viable.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.