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Colloidal photonic crystals display peculiar optical properties which makethem particularly suitable for application in different fields. However, thelow packing fraction of the targeted structures usually poses a real challengein the fabrication stage. Here, we propose a novel route to colloidal photoniccrystals via a binary mixture of hard tetramers and hard spheres. By combiningtheory and computer simulations, we calculate the phase diagram as well as thestacking diagram of the mixture, and show that a colloidal analogue of theMgCu2 Laves phase -- which can serve as a precursor of a photonic bandgapstructure -- is a thermodynamically stable phase in a large region of the phasediagram. Our findings show a relatively large coexistence region between thefluid and the Laves phase, which is potentially accessible by experiments.Furthermore, we determine the sedimentation behaviour of the suggested mixture,by identifying several stacking sequences. Our work uncovers a newself-assembly path towards a photonic structure with a band gap in the visibleregion.

Fabrication of colloidal Laves phases via hard tetramers and hard spheres: bulk phase diagram and sedimentation behaviour