Tailoring photonic crystals with nanometer-scale precision using polyelectrolyte multilayers.

In this paper, we describe a rapid, accurate, and convenient method for postsynthetically tuning the optical properties of colloidal photonic crystals. High quality photonic crystal films are first synthesized and then coated iteratively with layers of water-soluble polyelectrolytes. The coating process results in nanometer-scale shifts in the photonic stop band, a process which has been monitored by theoretical modeling. The results suggest a fundamentally different, reproducible layering mechanism inside the confined spaces of the colloidal crystal where polyelectrolyte multilayers are less densely packed.