Self-Organized Colloidal Crystals in a Capillary with a Fiber Junction

We present a facile approach to fabricating colloidal photonic crystal microstructures in a capillary. Typical procedures for fabricating such microstructures are demonstrated. A fiber-capillary butt-joint was constructed with self-organized colloidal photonic crystals in a capillary through evaporation-induced nucleation and crystallization. Silica colloidal microspheres with a diameter of 320 nm self-organized in a glass capillary were investigated. Colloidal crystal samples were characterized by optical microscopy and scanning electronic microscopey (SEM), and the SEM images show that these crystals favor an fcc lattice with a longitudinal (111) crystallographic axis. With the use of a fiber junction, the resulting high-quality colloidal crystals may be implemented in sensor applications, for example, as an ideal template for a porous microstructure that can be used for biochemical sensors. (C) 2010 The Japan Society of Applied Physics