Three-dimensional (3D) composite colloidal photonic crystals with SiO2 core and ZnO shell were fabricated on borosilicate glass (BSG) substrate by a two-stage deposition method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements show that both the pre-deposited SiO2 and SiO2/ZnO core-shell structures are oriented with their (111) axes parallel to the substrates. Optical measurement reveals that the periodic arrays exhibit a photonic band gap in the (111) direction. The optical properties of SiO2/ZnO core-shell structures strongly depend on the size dispersions of colloidal spheres and the intrinsic defects in the sample. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.