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Wiltzius' research interests are in self-assembly processes in soft-condensed matter systems, e.g., polymers, liquid crystals and colloids. Colloidal self-assembly, in particular, is a promising approach to build materials for photonics applications. 3-D "photonic crystals" will be building blocks for highly integrated, functional microphotonic devices. Research topics of interest are:

• Understanding and control of defect formation in crystals during self-assembly.
• Optical characterization of photonic materials, including fluorescence lifetime enhancement of dyes inside crystalline structures.
• Electro-optically active photonic materials with imbibed liquid crystals, e.g. switchable Bragg gratings.
• Develop methods to assemble colloids into non-FCC crystals, e.g., CsCl, AB2 or diamond-like crystalline photonic materials. This might be facilitated through biologically inspired approaches by using colloids which are functionalized with appropriate surface groups (DNA oligomers, antigen-antibodies). Other approaches to creating nanostructured microperiodic materials include multibeam holography, two- and multiphoton lithography, and soft-lithography.