Just a pile of nanoparticles | Micrograph Monday

CONSIDER SUBSCRIBING 🥰 🔬Support the channel: 📢Twitter: 💻Discord: ======= Background Information ======= Opals! Photonic crystals! Structural color! Opals are examples of natural photonic crystals. They are composed of small silica nanoparticles ranging in size from 50-300nm, and packed tightly together in a semi-regular “lattice“ The individual silica nanoparticles (glass beads, basically) are clear, but when packed together in certain configurations can give rise to flashes of color. This is due to Bragg diffraction off the different layers in the opal, with different reflected photons interferring with each other.