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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Photonic properties of strongly correlated colloidal liquids
L F Rojas-Ochoa1, J M Mendez-Alcaraz, J J Sáenz
1Department of Physics, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.
Abstract:
The optical and structural properties of dense colloidal suspensions in the presence of long-range electrostatic repulsion are determined from both light and small-angle neutron scattering experiments. Short-range structural order induces an enhancement of the scattering strength while at the same time the total transmission shows strong wavelength dependence, reminiscent of a photonic crystal. Interestingly, the interplay between diffusive scattering and local order leads to negative values of the scattering anisotropy parameter. The tunable optical properties of these liquids furthermore suggest potential applications such as transparency switches or filters.
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