Translationally invariant colloidal crystal templates
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Updated: Feb 17, 2026

Fabrication of Zero Mode Waveguides for High Concentration Single Molecule Microscopy
Published on: May 12, 2020
Pankaj Popli1, Saswati Ganguly, Surajit Sengupta
1TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences, 36/P Gopanapally, Hyderabad 500107, India. pankajp@tifrh.res.in surajit@tifrh.res.in.
Abstract:
We show that dynamic, feed-back controlled optical traps, whose positions depend on the instantaneous local configuration of particles in a pre-determined way, can stabilise colloidal particles in finite lattices of any given symmetry. Unlike in a static template, the crystal so formed is invariant under uniform translations and retains all possible zero energy modes. We demonstrate this in silico by stabilising the unstable two-dimensional square lattice in a model soft solid with isotropic interactions.
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