Enhanced colloidal monolayer assembly via vibration-assisted convective deposition

We demonstrate a purely mechanical technique for enhancing evaporation- driven convective deposition of particle monolayers from suspension. Lateral vibration in the deposition direction results in monolayer deposition at faster speeds, over a wider range of withdraw rates, and with higher order versus traditional convective deposition. These enhancements and phenomena are a result of variation in the thin film, where capillary interactions result in self-assembly by dynamically changing the air-liquid interface. This enhancement in fabricating ordered particle thin films may enable development of optical and biological applications and efforts to scale- up this process for commercial application. (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.