In this talk I shall focus on the results of a recent investigation of the major factors that influence colloidal self-assembly of thin film photonic crystals. Although colloidal self-assembly is widely used for the formation of thin film photonic crystals, a review of the scientific literature suggests that the factors influencing the growth process and the optimum conditions for growth of large crystals with low defect densities are not transparent. The use of colloids of different materials, sizes and dispersions, as well as the use of numerous characterisation methods also makes it difficult to obtain a clear understanding of the growth process. It can be anticipated that many of the factors influencing the growth process will not be independent and understanding the interaction between these variables is critical. In this presentation the results of a systematic study of the factors influencing the controlled vertical drying technique will be discussed. The effect of temperature, relative humidity, sphere diameter, colloidal concentration and substrate angle will be considered. The impact of these results on the development of multifunctional thin film photonic crystals will be discussed.

David McComb joined the Department of Materials at Imperial College London as a senior lecturer in 2003. After graduating from the University of Glasgow with a BSc in Chemistry, he studied the development and application of electron energy-loss spectroscopy for his PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Archie Howie. On completion of his PhD studies he was appointed as a college research fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and was a awarded a fellowship by the Royal Commission for the 1851 Exhibition to pursue his work in the field of electron energy-loss spectroscopy. A brief flirtation with surface science and scanning tunnelling microscopy followed when he was appointed as a senior research associate at Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences at the CNRC in Ottawa, Canada. He returned to the field of nano-analytical electron microscopy when he moved to the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research as a senior research associate to investigate the application of EELS to a range of problems in metals, semiconductors, ceramics and advanced composite systems in close collaboration with Professor George Weatherly. He was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow in 1996 and was promoted to senior lecturer in 2002. His current research topics include nanoanalytical electron microscopy techniques for the study of chemistry, structure and bonding at interfaces and the development of multifunctional three dimensional photonic crystals. He has published over 80 papers in scientific journals.