High-resolution plasmonic structural colors from nanohole arrays with bottom metal disks

Abstract

We present transmissive plasmonic structural colors from subwavelength nanohole arrays with bottom metal disks for scaled-up manufacturing by nanoimprint lithography (NIL). Comprehensive theoretical and experimental studies are carried out to understand the specific extraordinary optical transmission behavior of the structures with such bottom metal disks. Distinctive colors covering the entire visible spectrum can be generated by changing the structural dimensions of hole arrays in Ag covered by the metal disks. The plasmonic energy hybridization theory is applied to explain the unstable color output with shallow holes so that a large processing window during NIL could be achieved for mass production. A high-resolution of 127,000 dots per inch is demonstrated with potential applications, including color filters and displays, high-resolution color printing, CMOS color imaging, and anti-counterfeiting.

Defining Deep‐Subwavelength‐Resolution, Wide‐Color‐Gamut, and Large‐Viewing‐Angle Flexible Subtractive Colors with an Ultrathin Asymmetric Fabry–Perot Lossy Cavity

“…For the applications of structural color, wide color gamut, large viewing angle, high resolution, good flexibility, and scalable fabrication are the major issues to be addressed. Since the discovery of the extraordinary optical transmission phenomenon, many kinds of structural colors have been demonstrated with a variety of plasmonic nanostructures, such as periodic subwavelength nanoholes, metallic nanodisk arrays, hybrid nanohole–nanodisk structures, metallic nanoparticles, and subwavelength metallic gratings . In general, the structural colors achieved by the aforementioned plasmonic nanostructures highly depend on the predefined stringent geometrical and structural parameters, the realization of which all relies on complicated multistep fabrication processes, such as nanoimprint lithography, electron‐beam lithography, reactive ion etching, and focused ion beam milling, etc.…”

Plasmonic- and dielectric-based structural coloring: from fundamentals to practical applications

“…f (top) Transmissive microscopic color palette using Ag. (bottom) Three scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of nanohole pixels with 500-nm periodicity and exposure to e-beam dose of 900 (left), 720 (middle) and 500 (right) μC/cm 2 , corresponding to red, yellow and white circles of top image [ 53 ] …”

“…Nanohole-shaped PCFs based on silver (Ag) instead of Al or gold (Au) can produce color-enhanced transmissive structural colors [ 53 ]. The Ag color diagram has a wide distribution of displayed colors, whereas the Al and Au diagrams focus on certain colors (Fig.…”

Multilevel nanoimprint lithography with a binary mould for plasmonic colour printing

“…21,22 Previously, thermal NIL has been successfully demonstrated to produce high-resolution surfaces exhibiting plasmonic colour. 1,23 A more industrial approach has been performed by Højlund et al where thermal roll-to-roll nanoimprint lithography (R2R-NIL) was used to mass-produce devices exhibiting plasmonic colour. 24 Thermal NIL, however, involves heating to high temperatures (typically around 150 C, depending on the type of resist) which not only consumes energy but requires meticulous control over the relevant imprint parameters such as temperature and pressure.…”