Actively Tunable Structural Color Rendering with Tensile Substrate

Abstract

CommuniCation(1 of 6) 1600829 and immune to bleach, thus hold great potentials in display, [6,7] anticounterfeiting technology, [19] etc.Structural colors are typically produced by diffractive gratings (with or without guided mode resonance (GMR)), [20][21][22] Fabry-Pérot cavity, [18] photonic crystals (PCs), [23,24] plasmonics, [1,[25][26][27] etc. Dynamic color tuning is a very important and fascinating direction in the field of structural colorations, because of its possible applications in stealthy, anticounterfeiting and displaying techniques. The resonant wavelengths of filters based on GMR effect are very sharp, resulting in high purity and brightness colors. Dynamic tuning of the GMR can be achieved by adopting the index-tunable materials as the waveguide layers. However, the possible color tuning gamut might be limited without the large index changes. Alternatively, the interferometric modulator display, a type of Fabry-Pérot cavity, can achieve the dynamic tunability of spectra via gap changing of the cavity controlled by the microelectromechanical system. This can produce a continuously varying color in the whole visible range, [18] but the strategy requires a complex controlling system, which is unfavorable for optoelectronic integration. The PCs can also provide dynamically tunable capability of the resonant wavelengths with the change of refractive indices of dielectrics in PC structures. [23,24] Plasmonics is known to offer a platform for transformative applications in optical frequency. [28][29][30][31] Nevertheless, plasmon in conventional nanoscale metallic systems cannot easily support the dynamical tunability because of the rigid structures or devices, except when it is composed of some certain materials or compound structures with tunable properties, such as optoelectronic or electrochemical materials, graphene, etc. [32][33][34][35][36] Herein, we propose and demonstrate a method to create actively tunable structural color based on tensile substrate, [37][38][39][40] i.e., polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). PDMS, one of the most widely used silicon-based organic polymer, is particularly known for its unusual properties, [41] such as inert, nontoxic, and nonflammable. Taking advantage of the viscoelastic [42] and chemical stable [43] properties, elastic deformations (e.g., tension) of PDMS can be easily occurred under the external force. Therefore, the period of the structure on PDMS will change simultaneously, which causes the dynamic tuning of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) wavelength, as the phase-matching condition changes. Moreover, compared to the previous dielectric-PDMS composed

Highly Tunable Polarized Chromatic Plasmonic Films Based on Subwavelength Grating Templates

“…As shown in Figure , the fabrication procedure of MNG‐based PCPT includes three steps. First, dielectric grating templates are fabricated by using laser interference lithography (LIL) or nanoimprinting lithography (NIL), which have shown the advantages in the mass production of MNGs. Then, the figures of tags are patterned on the templates by using flexible mask‐free laser engraving or rapid mask‐based UV printing.…”

Nanoscale uniformity in the active tuning of a plasmonic array by polymer gel volume change

“…PDMS-based active plasmonic substrates have been widely applied to fundamental research on SPR [32][33][34][35] and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) 36,37 and applications such as tunable coloring materials. [38][39][40] Although SERS is one of the promising applications for label-free detection of biomolecules such as proteins with high sensitivity by the extreme enhancing effect of Raman scattering signals, which is known as intrinsic chemical ngerprint information, at the enhanced electromagnetic eld on SPR, there are few reports on this, probably due to the unsuitable affinity between PDMS and biomolecules. From the viewpoint of compatibility with biomolecules, hydrogels are thought to be a better substrate.…”

Holography Using Curved Metasurfaces

“…Flexibility has been previously exploited for MS hologram devices controlled by the degree of substrate stretching, e.g., to vary the color of an MS [24,25], the focus of an MS lens [26], or to alternate between multiple near-field images [27]. A theoretical exploration of flexible MS holograms has also enabled carpet cloaking, and spherical aberration correction for lensing applications [28].…”