Three-dimensional capillary force assembly: Fabrication of white light emitters

Abstract

This work uses convective assisted capillary force assembly from a collection of 100 nm fluorescent polystyrene nanoparticles to fabricate 4 μm wide and 1 μm high localized light-emitting superstructures. Large scale superstructures of about 10 000 particles are transferred on free silicon surfaces by microcontact printing. Optical characterization reveals that these sources emit polychromatic visible light from 400 to 800 nm equivalent to a white spectrum. Finally, single objects are studied to characterize the spatial distribution of the emitted color.