Tailoring Iridescent Visual Appearance with Disordered Resonant Metasurfaces

Abstract

The nanostructures of natural species offer beautiful visual appearances with saturated and iridescent colors, and the question arises whether we can reproduce or even create unique appearances with man-made metasurfaces. However, harnessing the specular and diffuse light scattered by disordered metasurfaces to create attractive and prescribed visual effects is currently inaccessible. Here, we present an interpretive, intuitive, and accurate modal-based tool that unveils the main physical mechanisms and features defining the appearance of colloidal disordered monolayers of resonant meta-atoms deposited on a reflective substrate. The model shows that the combination of plasmonic and Fabry–Perot resonances offers uncommon iridescent visual appearances, differing from those classically observed with natural nanostructures or thin-film interferences. We highlight an unusual visual effect exhibiting only two distinct colors and theoretically investigate its origin. The approach can be useful in the design of visual appearance with easy-to-make and universal building blocks having a large resilience to fabrication imperfections and potential for innovative coatings and fine-art applications.

Tailoring the visual appearance with disordered metasurfaces

“…Recently, we improved the first-generation tool and proposed an interpretive, intuitive and accurate modal-based tool that unveils the main physical mechanisms impacting the color and visual appearance of complex metasurfaces [5]. We implemented, tested, and validated the tool for disordered colloidal monolayers of plasmonic silver nanoparticles deposited on a reflective substrate coated with a submicrometric dielectric spacer (Fig.…”

Advanced manufacturing of dielectric meta-devices

“…It is evidently imperative to develop large-area fabrication techniques with enhanced flexibility, high precision, and uniformity [94,243,244] . Several techniques have been proposed and studied to boost high-throughput productivity for larger-scale metasurface fabrication, incorporating methods such as UV lithography [245][246][247][248][249][250][251] , nanoimprinting lithography [97,245,[252][253][254][255][256][257][258] , and self-assembly-based nanofabrication [259][260][261][262][263][264][265] . These approaches collectively contribute to the continuously evolving landscape of nanotechnology, paving the way for the cost-effective commercialization of metasurfaces.…”

Trapped Mode Excitation in Dielectric Metasurfaces with an Inhomogeneous Superstrate

“…The optical properties of metasurfaces are directly determined by the material, shape, and arrangement of inclusions (also known as “meta-atoms” or “meta-molecules”) constituting the structure. − Apart from choosing the corresponding material when fabricating metasurfaces, considerable effort is made to minimize disturbances in the shape and arrangement of meta-atoms, creating precisely ordered two-dimensional arrays of either metallic or dielectric particles. Since fabrication imperfections cannot be eliminated in actual structures, a significant amount of research has been conducted to determine how disturbances in the particle size and arrangement affect the optical properties of metasurfaces. − At the same time, any disturbance introduces disorder, which is a separate subject for study, since the presence of disorder in a physical system enhances its complexity and leads to the appearance of some specific phenomena (e.g., Anderson localization), as well as certain mechanisms of interaction between light and matter, − which can stimulate new approaches to implementation of metasurfaces − (see also a comprehensive review on the engineered disorder in optical systems in refs and ).…”