From the de Broglie to visible wavelengths: Manipulating electrons and photons with colloids

Because of their size and ability to selforganize, colloidal particles are ideal building blocks for the creation of threedimensional (3D) structures that can have feature sizes of the order of the wavelength of electrons, photons, or both. This article is too short to provide an extensive literature survey but instead will give some illustrative examples, based on work of the author and co-workers, of how specially developed core-shell particles might be organized on a 3D lattice. These examples are only intended to give an impression of how colloidal-particle systems can be used in the design of new materials with interesting photonic properties.