TY - JOUR
T1 - Inducing Symmetry Breaking in Nanostructures: Anisotropic Stretch-Tuning Photonic Crystals
AU - Kontogeorgos, Andreas
AU - Snoswell, David R. E.
AU - Finlayson, Christopher Edward
AU - Baumberg, Jeremy J.
AU - Spahn, Peter
AU - Hellmann, G. Peter
PY - 2010/12/3
Y1 - 2010/12/3
N2 - We use elastically induced phase transitions to break the structural symmetry of self-assembled nanostructures, producing significantly modified functional properties. Stretching ordered polymer opals in different directions transforms the fcc photonic crystal into correspondingly distorted monoclinic lattices. This breaks the conventional selection rules for scattering from the crystal planes, yielding extra multiply scattered colors when the phase-breaking stretch is in specific directions. Scattering is spectroscopically tracked in real time as the samples distort, revealing a new phase transition that appears for (121)-oriented deformations.
AB - We use elastically induced phase transitions to break the structural symmetry of self-assembled nanostructures, producing significantly modified functional properties. Stretching ordered polymer opals in different directions transforms the fcc photonic crystal into correspondingly distorted monoclinic lattices. This breaks the conventional selection rules for scattering from the crystal planes, yielding extra multiply scattered colors when the phase-breaking stretch is in specific directions. Scattering is spectroscopically tracked in real time as the samples distort, revealing a new phase transition that appears for (121)-oriented deformations.
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.233909
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.233909
M3 - Article
C2 - 21231468
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 105
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 23
M1 - 233909
ER -