A Route to Hierarchical Assembly of Colloidal Diamond

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel approach to assemble colloidal diamond structures using modified gyrobifastigial nanoparticles, exploring assembly parameters, defect likelihood, and potential photonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new nanoparticle shape, mGBF, for diamond assembly and compares its effectiveness to existing shapes, providing a potential route for colloidal diamond synthesis.

Findings

Successful self-assembly of diamond using mGBF nanoparticles

Comparison shows mGBF reduces defect likelihood compared to truncated tetrahedra

Impact of superstructure on photonic properties demonstrated

Abstract

Photonic crystals, appealing for their ability to control light, are constructed by periodic regions of different dielectric constants. Yet, the structural holy grail in photonic materials, diamond, remains challenging to synthesize at the colloidal length scale. Here we explore new ways to assemble diamond using modified gyrobifastigial (mGBF) nanoparticles, a shape that resembles two antialigned triangular prisms. We investigate the parameter space that leads to the self-assembly of diamond, and we compare the likelihood of defects in diamond self-assembled via mGBF vs. the nanoparticle shape that is the current focus for assembling diamond, the truncated tetrahedra. We introduce a potential route for realizing mGBF particles by dimerizing triangular prisms using attractive patches, and we report the impact of this superstructure on the photonic properties.