Quasi-ordered photonic glass materials: fabrication strategies, performance enhancement and applications

Photonic glass materials have drawn significant attention in emerging applications owing to their unique structural features with pseudo isotropic photonic bandgaps, short-range order and angular-independent coloration. In this review, we systematically summarize a variety of common fabrication strategies based on colloidal nanoparticles for photonic glasses and their promising applications. In particular, inverse photonic glassy pigments are discussed for improving saturation and purity of quasi-crystalline structural colors. Additionally, the role of inorganic semiconductor particles with a high refractive index upon increasing the dielectric constant for producing non-iridescent photonic materials is described. Finally, this review analyses the critical challenges and highlights the promising new areas of photonic glass materials for future applications.