title: Real-time studies of evaporation-induced colloidal self-assembly by optical microspectroscopy.
abstract: Real-time monitoring of the whole growth process of evaporation-induced colloidal self-assembly has been conducted using an optical microspectroscopy setup. Our observations suggest that the assembly process can be divided into three different growth stages as evidenced by the variations detected in the reflectance spectra. The thickness variation of the growing colloidal crystal was monitored by examining the Fabry-Perot fringes in the reflectance spectra. Furthermore, the scalar wave approximation was utilized to analyze the evolution of optical properties with growth. More detailed information, including the time dependence of number of layers and volume fraction of water, has been revealed by comparing the experimental and calculated reflectance spectra. The present work demonstrates that in situ real-time microspectroscopy is a promising technique for monitoring and investigating the dynamic process of colloidal self-assembly.
authors: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box, 603, Beijing 100190, China.
authors: Lei
authors: L
authors: Yang
authors: Yiduo
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Jianheng
authors: J
authors: Luo
authors: Yanhong
authors: Y
authors: Luo
authors: Kuiyi
authors: K
authors: Gao
authors: Dongmei
authors: D
authors: Li
authors: Qingbo
authors: Q
authors: Meng