Opal chips: vectorial growth of colloidal crystal patterns inside silicon wafersElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: pictorial representation of work described in this communication. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b0/b008534k/

Abstract

A simple, quick, reproducible and inexpensive method is described that combines self-assembly, micro-fluidics and soft lithography, to achieve a novel example of vectorial control of thickness, area, orientation and registry of patterned single crystal silica colloidal crystals in silicon wafers, coined opal chips, for potential applications in photonic chip and lab-on-chip technologies.