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Research · Publication & note

July 13, 2006 September 9, 2026

Faceting and Commensurability in Crystal Structures of Colloidal Thin Films - Notes

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Published abstract

This Letter investigates the influence of finite size effects on the particle arrangement of thin film colloidal crystals. A rich variety of crystallographic faceting with large single domain microcrystallites is shown. Optical reflectance experiments together with scanning electron microscopy permit the identification of the crystal symmetry and the facet orientation, as well as the exact number of monolayers. When the cell thickness is not commensurable with a high symmetry layering, particles arrange themselves in a periodic distribution of (111)- and (100)-orientated face centered cubic (fcc) microcrystallites separated by planar defects. These structures can be described as a fcc ordering orientated along a vicinal surface, modified by a periodic distribution of fcc (111) stacking faults.

Figures

Complete Figure 1 composition with reflectance spectra and SEM panels
Figure 1. Summary. Successive reflectance spectra and scanning electron micrographs follow a confined colloidal film as its thickness increases from seven to eight monolayers. The structure evolves continuously from a (100)-oriented face-centred-cubic prismatic arrangement, through progressively finer faceted domains and additional interfacial rows, to long-range (111)-oriented face-centred-cubic order. The displacement of the Bragg feature provides the optical signature of the structural sequence seen in the micrographs.

Source: F. Ramiro-Manzano et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 028304 (2006); reproduced on an author's personal website.

Complete Figure 2 composition with reflectance spectra and SEM panels
Figure 2. Summary. For a colloidal film near nine monolayers, the paired spectra and micrographs trace the transition from long-range (111)-oriented face-centred-cubic order to a (100)-oriented hexagonal-close-packed facet. Intermediate states contain progressively smaller face-centred-cubic microcrystallites separated by line defects, while the Bragg peak shifts to longer wavelength as the local thickness increases. Together, the optical and structural data show that the change proceeds through stacking faults rather than an abrupt reconstruction.

Source: F. Ramiro-Manzano et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 028304 (2006); reproduced on an author's personal website.

Complete Figure 3 composition with vicinal fcc model and SEM panels
Figure 3. Summary. (a) Top and side views of a vicinal fcc (100) crystal ordering. Models (b) and (c) show how the system produces stacking faults planes to maximize filling fraction.

Source: F. Ramiro-Manzano et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 028304 (2006); reproduced on an author's personal website.

Complete Figure 4 composition with vicinal fcc model and SEM panels
Figure 4. Summary. (a) Top and side views of a vicinal fcc (111) crystal ordering. (b-d): Side views of the prismatic (111) phases.

Source: F. Ramiro-Manzano et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 028304 (2006); reproduced on an author's personal website.

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Related publications

Connections within F. Ramiro-Manzano's publication record, selected from shared research topics and evidence reviewed in the source papers.

SEM micrographs of adaptive colloidal prism phases
Article
Phys. Rev. Lett. 109(21), 218301 (2012)
Packing Confined Hard Spheres Denser with Adaptive Prism Phases
E. C. Oğuz, M. Marechal, F. Ramiro-Manzano, I. Rodriguez, R. Messina, F. J. Meseguer and H. Löwen

What the related paper adds

This later paper extends the research direction developed in Faceting and Commensurability in Crystal Structures of Colloidal Thin Films. This paper revisits confined hard-sphere packing with optimization theory, real-space experiments and finite-pressure Monte Carlo simulations. It discovers adaptive prism phases whose internal rhombic or square geometry changes with slit height, tests which structures remain stable away from ideal close packing, and refines the earlier experimental transition sequences.

What this paper adds to the related work

This paper provides an earlier basis for the later development reported in Packing Confined Hard Spheres Denser with Adaptive Prism Phases. This study establishes how commensurability governs faceting in wedge-confined colloidal films. Optical spectra and electron microscopy reveal large FCC and HCP-oriented domains, including the vertical HCP(100) facet, and show how stacking faults and vicinal structures bridge thicknesses that do not fit a simple high-symmetry stacking.

Woodhead Publishing book chapter identification graphic
Book chapter
Thin Film Growth, 155-184 (2011)
Phase transitions in colloidal crystal thin films
F. Ramiro-Manzano, E. Bonet, I. Rodríguez and F. Meseguer

What the related paper adds

This later paper extends the research direction developed in Faceting and Commensurability in Crystal Structures of Colloidal Thin Films. This chapter provides the broad synthesis of the confined-colloid programme. It organizes the known and newly observed phases from one layer to thicker films, reconstructs their transition dynamics, distinguishes the well-resolved one-to-four-layer sequence from the richer four-to-eight-layer regime, and identifies the questions that remained open for theory and experiment.

What this paper adds to the related work

This paper provides an earlier basis for the later development reported in Phase transitions in colloidal crystal thin films. This study establishes how commensurability governs faceting in wedge-confined colloidal films. Optical spectra and electron microscopy reveal large FCC and HCP-oriented domains, including the vertical HCP(100) facet, and show how stacking faults and vicinal structures bridge thicknesses that do not fit a simple high-symmetry stacking.

Iridescent colloidal crystal thin-film sample, panel (a) of Figure 7
Journal article
Eur. J. Phys. 32(2), 505-515 (2011)
Fabrication and characterization of colloidal crystal thin films
I. Rodríguez, F. Ramiro-Manzano, F. Meseguer and E. Bonet

What the related paper adds

This later paper extends the research direction developed in Faceting and Commensurability in Crystal Structures of Colloidal Thin Films. This article turns the wedge-cell research platform into an accessible laboratory experiment. It explains how to grow the films, recognize triangular, square and HCP facets, determine layer number from top and cross-sectional electron micrographs, and use three-dimensional models to make the crystallographic transitions understandable to students and newcomers.

What this paper adds to the related work

This paper provides an earlier basis for the later development reported in Fabrication and characterization of colloidal crystal thin films. This study establishes how commensurability governs faceting in wedge-confined colloidal films. Optical spectra and electron microscopy reveal large FCC and HCP-oriented domains, including the vertical HCP(100) facet, and show how stacking faults and vicinal structures bridge thicknesses that do not fit a simple high-symmetry stacking.

Figure 3. SEM images and side and top views of particle-ordering models as the cell thickness increases.
Journal article
Langmuir 26(7), 4559-4562 (2010)
Colloidal Crystal Thin Films Grown into Corrugated Surface Templates
F. Ramiro-Manzano, E. Bonet, I. Rodriguez and F. Meseguer

What the related paper adds

This later paper extends the research direction developed in Faceting and Commensurability in Crystal Structures of Colloidal Thin Films. This paper adds a deliberately patterned boundary to the wedge-cell problem by using inexpensive CD and DVD grooves. It shows that groove width, pitch, particle size and cell thickness can cooperate to create one-dimensional decorations, zigzag strips and extended two-dimensional domains, turning confinement into a practical route for directing self-assembly.

What this paper adds to the related work

This paper provides an earlier basis for the later development reported in Colloidal Crystal Thin Films Grown into Corrugated Surface Templates. This study establishes how commensurability governs faceting in wedge-confined colloidal films. Optical spectra and electron microscopy reveal large FCC and HCP-oriented domains, including the vertical HCP(100) facet, and show how stacking faults and vicinal structures bridge thicknesses that do not fit a simple high-symmetry stacking.

Featured image for Layering transitions in colloidal crystal thin films between 1 and 4 monolayers
Journal article
Soft Matter 5(21), 4279-4282 (2009)
Layering transitions in colloidal crystal thin films between 1 and 4 monolayers
F. Ramiro-Manzano, E. Bonet, I. Rodriguez and F. Meseguer

What the related paper adds

This later paper extends the research direction developed in Faceting and Commensurability in Crystal Structures of Colloidal Thin Films. This study assembles the complete experimental transition landscape between one and four monolayers. It clarifies the role of HCP(100)-like and pre-square arrangements, introduces HCP(011) as a compact route between square and triangular order, and connects the observed phases through their filling fraction and continuous particle motion.

What this paper adds to the related work

This paper provides an earlier basis for the later development reported in Layering transitions in colloidal crystal thin films between 1 and 4 monolayers. This study establishes how commensurability governs faceting in wedge-confined colloidal films. Optical spectra and electron microscopy reveal large FCC and HCP-oriented domains, including the vertical HCP(100) facet, and show how stacking faults and vicinal structures bridge thicknesses that do not fit a simple high-symmetry stacking.

Composite SEM figure comparing colloidal crystal wire arrangements for confinement ratios D from 1.3 to 2.9 with corresponding sphere-packing models
Article
Adv. Mater. 20(12), 2315-2318 (2008)
Colloidal Crystal Wires
M. Tymczenko, L. F. Marsal, T. Trifonov, I. Rodriguez, F. Ramiro-Manzano, J. Pallares, A. Rodriguez, R. Alcubilla and F. Meseguer

What the related paper adds

This later paper extends the research direction developed in Faceting and Commensurability in Crystal Structures of Colloidal Thin Films. This work moves colloidal confinement from a planar slit into cylindrical silicon pores. By varying the pore-to-particle ratio, it produces free-standing colloidal wires with zigzag, double-string, prismatic, helical and hollow-core arrangements, while showing that wall affinity and electrostatic repulsion reshape the hard-sphere packing picture.

What this paper adds to the related work

This paper provides an earlier basis for the later development reported in Colloidal Crystal Wires. This study establishes how commensurability governs faceting in wedge-confined colloidal films. Optical spectra and electron microscopy reveal large FCC and HCP-oriented domains, including the vertical HCP(100) facet, and show how stacking faults and vicinal structures bridge thicknesses that do not fit a simple high-symmetry stacking.

SEM images of hcp-like colloidal crystal phases with four, five and six monolayers (Figure 4)
Rapid Communication
Phys. Rev. E 76, 050401(R) (2007)
Layering transitions in confined colloidal crystals: The hcp-like phase
F. Ramiro-Manzano, E. Bonet, I. Rodriguez and F. Meseguer

What the related paper adds

This later paper extends the research direction developed in Faceting and Commensurability in Crystal Structures of Colloidal Thin Films. This paper identifies HCP-like ordering as an adaptable intermediate phase rather than a fixed crystal structure. It follows the continuous reorganization of films from two to six layers and explains the detailed two-to-three and three-to-four layer transitions through changes in row spacing, sublayer motion and microcrystal rotation.

What this paper adds to the related work

This paper provides an earlier basis for the later development reported in Layering transitions in confined colloidal crystals: The hcp-like phase. This study establishes how commensurability governs faceting in wedge-confined colloidal films. Optical spectra and electron microscopy reveal large FCC and HCP-oriented domains, including the vertical HCP(100) facet, and show how stacking faults and vicinal structures bridge thicknesses that do not fit a simple high-symmetry stacking.

Research fields

Bottom-up

Colloidal spheres assemble under wedge confinement into films whose preferred orientation changes with layer number. When the gap is incommensurate with an ideal facet, the crystal introduces prismatic domains, terraces and periodic stacking faults to preserve dense packing.

Simulations & fits

Geometrical models and filling-fraction arguments reconstruct the fcc(100), fcc(111) and intermediate prismatic arrangements. They explain how the number and spacing of stacking faults evolve as the cell thickness moves between commensurate states.

Characterization

Position-dependent reflectance spectra are matched with top and cleaved-edge SEM images. This correlation assigns each spectral region to a three-dimensional facet and distinguishes a true structural transition from a gradual optical shift caused only by thickness.

RESEARCH TOPICS

MaterialsOptical reflectance and SEM reveal large single-domain facets and determine both orientation and exact monolayer number. The work turns finite-size frustration into a reproducible crystal architecture rather than treating the defects as random disorder.
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