Abstract
Three-dimensional (3D) colloidal crystals with polyelectrolyte (PE)/nanoparticles (NPs) hybrid shells were fabricated by crystallization of PE multilayer-coated colloidal particles on quartz substrates followed by in-situ synthesis of NPs within the PE shell via ion-exchange and chemical reduction. Both metal (Ag) and semiconductor (CdS) NPs could be formed on the particle shell. It was also demonstrated that the position of the stop band of the colloidal crystal could be finely tuned by adjusting the shell composition.