Dynamical Bragg diffraction from crystalline colloidal arrays

Abstract

Polystyrene spheres with attached functional groups that ionize in solution repel one another; at sufficiently high sphere concentrations the spheres self‐assemble into a crystalline lattice with lattice constants large enough to diffract visible light. We have experimentally and theoretically examined diffraction phenomena from colloidal crystals of polystyrene spheres of diameters between 69 and 127 nm in water. We relate the diffraction bandwidths to the sphere scattering powers in the context of the dynamical diffraction theory and demonstrate the importance of the dynamical theory for predicting the observed diffraction angles, intensities, and bandwidths. We also discuss the mechanism contributing to the diffuse scattering and show the significance of the coherent scattering by lattice phonons.