Method for Colloidal Diamond Construction Unlocks Long-Coveted and Wide-Ranging Photonic Potential

Researchers in David Pine’s NYU laboratory have developed and introduced a method for the reliable creation of colloidal diamonds. Using a steric interlock mechanism to spontaneously produce the staggered bonds that make a physical diamond formation possible, the researchers created pyramidal colloids that approached and subsequently linked to one another in an orientation necessary to the self-assembly of a diamond formation. Colloids, if assembled and arranged in a diamond formation, produce a bandgap for visible light, filtering out distinct wavelengths. The photonic technique and the diamond lattice it produced could cut manufacturing costs and processes necessary to the manufacture of highly efficient optical circuits and...