Self-assembled layers of colloidal crystals submicron spheres for photonic applications

The use of large nanopatterned surfaces areas arouses a growing interest for the fabrication of templates, thin membranes, biomedical sensors and large-area photonic devices. Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique offers the possibility to deposit self-assembled monolayers of molecules and nanometric particles on surfaces exhibiting a structural order and uniformity at large scale. In this work, we studied the characteristics and properties of silica nanoparticles, produced by sol-gel process, for self-assembly in close-packed 2D crystal monolayers, deposited on glass and silicon substrates using the LB technique. The resulting monolayers were characterized by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy), optical measurements, transmittance and contact angle measurements.