Fabrication and multiangular optical characterization of ellipsoidal photonic crystal

Three-dimensional photonic crystals of ellipsoidal building blocks have been fabricated by convective self-assembly method under the guidance of magnetic field. Monodisperse magnetic ellipsoids were self-assembled via capillary forces in the presence of magnetic field. The magnetic field provides the orientational order, which is additionally needed for the assembly of these colloidal particles with symmetry lower than spheres. The positional order is provided by the convection, just as for the assembly of spherical colloids. Angular dependent optical property of this fabricated novel superlattice has also been studied.