High-speed fabrication of patterned colloidal photonic structures in centrifugal microfluidic chips.
In this paper, we report a rapid and facile method for fabricating colloidal photonic crystals inside microchannels of radially symmetric microfluidic chips which were made using soft-lithography. As the suspension of monodisperse silica or polystyrene latex spheres was driven to flow through the channels under the action of centrifugal force, the colloidal spheres were quickly assembled into face centered cubic arrangement which had a few photonic stop bands. The soft-microfluidic channels and cells confined the colloidal crystals into designed patterns. The optical reflectance was modulated by the refractive-index mismatch between the colloidal particles and the solvent in the interstices between the particles. Therefore, the present microfluidic chips with built-in colloidal photonic crystals can be used as in-situ optofluidic microsensors for high throughput screening or light filters in integrated adaptive optical devices.
Lee
Seung-Kon
SK
Centre for Integrated Optofluidic Systems and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, Korea.
Yi
Gi-Ra
GR
Yang
Seung-Man
SM
D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008863:Microspheres; D055096:Optical Devices; D017785:Photons; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*
D003102:Colloids; D011137:Polystyrenes; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; C024075:styrofoam