J. Zhang, A. Alsayed, S. Sanyal, F. Zhang, W.-J. Pao, V. S. K. Balagurusamy, P. A. Heiney, and A. G. Yodh, Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 3176-3178 (2002).
We have demonstrated that square two-dimensional grating templates can drive the growth of three-dimensional (3D), face-centered-cubic (FCC) colloidal crystals by convective assembly. The square symmetry (i.e. (100) planes parallel to the substrate) of the underlying template was transferred to the colloidal crystal and maintained throughout its of growth of ~50 layers. We characterized crystals grown on flat and on templated substrates using electron microscopy and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). SAXS measurements of the templated samples clearly show four-fold diffraction patternis arising from FCC domains without stacking faults.