Holographically Defined Nanoparticle Placement in 3D Colloidal Crystals

We demonstrate an optical interference-based photochemical method for the high-resolution localization of nanoparticles inside colloidal crystals or other porous structures. The method specifically relies on photoinduced inversion of the colloidal crystal surface charge to drive the localized deposition of charged gold nanoparticles. 4-Bromomethyl-3-nitrobenzoic acid (BNBA) was used as a photocleavable linker, and dansylamide was attached to BNBA to increase the absorption at 351 nm. Two-beam interference lithography was used for high-resolution optical patterning of the colloidal crystals; the resulting pattern was then decorated with functional nanoparticles. The periodicity of the pattern was 400 nm, and the width of the gold nanoparticle decorated region was similar to 200 nm. Our strategy of using photo-switching in a refractive-index-matched porous medium followed by the attachment of nanoparticles to the photoswitched region should be applicable to wide classes of charged nanoparticles.