Facile Organization of Colloidal Particles into Large, Perfect One- and Two-Dimensional Arrays by Dry Manual Assembly on Patterned Substrates

The ability to rapidly and reproducibly assemble colloidal particles into large (>mm) one- (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) single crystals with perfect control of the particle networking pattern would open a new world rich with high quality novel materials, technologies, and sciences. However, current methods rely on self-assembly of colloidal particles in solution (wet self-assembly), which intrinsically makes the assembly of the colloidal particles into defect-free large 1 D and 2D single crystals difficult. We now demonstrate a new paradigm of colloidal particle organization into 1D and 2D single crystals, a process we call 'dry manual assembly on nanolithographically patterned substrates', which enables facile and rapid organization of colloidal particles in dry states into 1 D and 2D single crystals in the centimeter or larger scales with a well-defined particle networking pattern. We believe that this novel methodology will serve as a key to open a new era of particle organization.