Dual-channel anticounterfeiting color-nanoprinting with a single-size nanostructured metasurface

Abstract

Metasurface-based structural-colors are usually implemented by changing the dimensions of nanostructures to produce different spectral responses. Therefore, a single-size nanostructured metasurface usually cannot display structural-colors since it has only one design degree of freedom (DOF), i.e., the orientation angles of nanostructures. Here, we show structural-color nanoprinting images can be generated with a single-size nanostructured metasurface, enabled by designing the anisotropic nanostructure with different spectral responses along its long- and short-axis directions, respectively. More interestingly, the concept of orientation degeneracy of nanostructures can be applied in the metasurface design, which shows two spectral modulations can be implemented under different polarization directions of output light, thus extending the color-nanoprinting from single-channel to dual-channel. The proposed dual-channel metasurface used for anticounterfeiting color-nanoprinting has presented the advantages of ultra-compactness, high information capacity, and vivid colors, which can develop broad applications in fields such as high-end anticounterfeiting, high-density information storage, optical encryption, etc.

Three-Channel Near-Field Display and Encryption Based on a Polarization Multiplexed Metasurface

“…Information multiplexing technology maximizes the use of devices, allowing information capacity to be increased without additional costs. For metasurfaces, with the aid of angular multiplexing [ 8 , 9 ], propagation direction multiplexing [ 10 ], wavelength multiplexing [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], and polarization multiplexing [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ], degrees of freedom can be fully utilized to integrate multiple channels carrying different nanoprinting image information onto one metasurface [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Among these methods, polarization multiplexing is one of the most commonly used methods.…”