Crystal thickness and sphere dispersion dependence of the photonic band gap of silica colloidal crystals

Experimental results demonstrate that the band gap of colloidal suspension crystal changes with both the thickness of crystal and the dispersity of micro-spheres. As the thickness decreases, a red shift of band gap is observed, and there is a maximum of red shift. The values of the maximum red shifts are dependent on the standard deviations of micro-spheres. The experimental results are consistent with theoretical calculation. As the colloidal suspension crystal is assembled from micro-spheres with a standard deviation of 8.4% in a thick cell, an incident angles independent broadband is observed, which is explained as an amorphous structure. Two amorphous models are discussed.