Langmuir-Blodgett Approach Versus Self-Organization in Realization of Colloidal Photonic Crystals and Hetero-Crystals - Pros and Cons

Colloidal crystals have been prepared using the self-organization, which results in 3-dimensional face-centered cubic lattice (opal), and the Langmuir-Blodgett technique, which leads to formation of 1-dimensional multilayers consisting of 2-dimensional hexagonal arrays of spheres. Bragg resonance enhancement and stronger polarization anisotropy in the Langmuir-Blodgett crystal compared to the conventional opal is accompanied by similarity of the second order diffraction in both crystals, but stronger light scattering and the lost of other zero diffraction orders in the former. The model of the Langmuir-Blodgett film structure has been suggested based on the analysis of optical diffraction. The comparison of optical properties of heterogeneous ensembles, which combine two films assembled from spheres of different diameters, is presented.