Control over ordering in colloidal crystals using surface templating

Summary form only given. Colloidal crystals offer a simple and versatile route to implement photonic crystals without recourse to complex top-down nanolithographic patterning. Colloidal crystals fabricated by sedimentation from a dispersion of colloid spherical particles often have small grain size and a high density of defects. We here report the deposition of colloidal crystals on holographically produced textured substrates that induce long-range ordering in the crystal. The crystalline arrangement of the first layer of spheres in contact with the substrate can be controlled by choosing a spatial period of the grating commensurate with the diameter of the colloidal spheres.