Smart dust: self-assembling, self-orienting photonic crystals of porous Si.

ABSTRACT: Micrometer-sized one-dimensional photonic crystals of porous Si that spontaneously assemble, orient, and sense their local environment are prepared. The photonic crystals are generated by electrochemically etching two discrete porous multilayered dielectric mirrors into Si, one on top of the other. The first mirror is chemically modified by hydrosilylation with dodecene before the etching of the second mirror, which is prepared with an optical reflectivity spectrum that is distinct from the first. The entire film is removed from the substrate, and the second mirror is then selectively modified by mild thermal oxidation. The films are subsequently fractured into small particles by sonication. The chemically asymmetric particles spontaneously align at an organic liquid-water interface, with

SUBMITTER: Link JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC196851 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature