Controllable preparation and orientation-dependent retroreflective structural color properties of anisotropic colloidal photonic crystals

Here, we have developed a method that utilizes deformed inverse opal templates to adjust the morphology of the building blocks and leverage their confinement effects for the in situ preparation and simultaneous assembly of monodisperse anisotropic colloidal particles. Based on the anisotropy of the building blocks, we have conducted the first study on the orientation-dependent retroreflective structural color of anisotropic colloidal photonic crystals (ACPCs).