Abstract
We review recent advances in the generation of photonics materials over large areas and volumes, using the paradigm of shear-induced ordering of composite polymer nanoparticles. The hard-core/soft-shell design of these particles produces quasi-solid “gum-like” media, with a viscoelastic ensemble response to applied shear, in marked contrast to the behavior seen in colloidal and granular systems. Applying an oscillatory shearing method to sub-micron spherical nanoparticles gives elastomeric photonic crystals (or “polymer opals”) with intense tunable structural color. The further engineering of this shear-ordering using a controllable “roll-to-roll” process known as Bending Induced Oscillatory Shear (BIOS), together with the interchangeable nature of the base composite particles, opens potentially transformative possibilities for mass manufacture of nano-ordered materials, including advances in optical materials, photonics, and metamaterials/plasmonics.
Highlights
Ordered 3D photonic structures, creating iridescence originating from Bragg reflections of visible light can be found in opal gemstones, butterfly wings, flower petals, and beetles [1,2,3]
We summarize our recent work illustrating the paradigm of shear-induced ordering of composite polymer nanoparticles, in the generation of opaline photonics materials over large areas and volumes
The procedures for polymer opal thin-film sample production have been reported at length in several of our earlier publications [38,39,40], and we provide a brief methodological summary here
Summary
Ordered 3D photonic structures, creating iridescence originating from Bragg reflections of visible light can be found in opal gemstones, butterfly wings, flower petals, and beetles [1,2,3] Such microstructures are an important subset of 3D photonic crystals; wavelength-scale periodic dielectric structures with the ability to modify the spatial, spectral, and temporal properties of absorbed, reflected, and transmitted light [4], giving distinguishing optical properties (e.g., structural colour), which are not accessible using dyes or pigments. A particular focus is on consolidating an understanding of the mechanisms of the order–disorder transition of particles in this viscoelastic medium under oscillatory shear, and the correlations between these mechanisms and the final permanent opaline structures
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