Dynamically Tunable Light Absorbers as Color Filters Based on Electrowetting Technology.

Jun Wu,Wei Lei,Tong Zhang,Baoping Wang,Jun Xia,Yaqiong Du

doi:10.3390/nano9010070

Abstract

A device that uses the electrowetting fluid manipulation technology to realize the reversible and dynamical modulation of the local surface plasmon resonance is invented. By varying the electrowetting voltage, the distribution of fluids media surrounding the grating structure get changed accordingly, causing the modulation of the plasmonic resonance peak. The simulation results indicated that three primary colors, that are cyan, magenta and yellow (CMY) can be respectively reflected through selecting suitable structural parameters. More importantly, for the first time, the invented fluid-based devices have exhibited fine-tuning characteristics for each primary color. Finally, the device has been proved to have a large color gamut range in the Commission International De L’E’clairage (CIE) 1931 color space.

Highlights

Artificial micro-nano structures can produce various singular optical properties and phenomena not available in natural materials [1]
Benefits from the development of micromachining technology, that is the emergence of nanoprocessing methods, the feasible working band of photonic devices has extended from infrared to visible light, based on which new principles and new methods are expected to be developed for micro-nano characterization techniques and micro-nano photonic functional devices
The color filters based on periodic nanostructures have a small absorption rate of incident light, and the performance parameters of which, such as the central spectral position and bandwidth can be well adjusted by the structural parameters

Summary

Introduction

Artificial micro-nano structures can produce various singular optical properties and phenomena not available in natural materials [1]. Photonics devices based on the artificial micro-nano structures have broad application prospects in many fields such as display [2], detection [3], imaging [4], remote sensing [5] and printing [6] because of the advantages such as designable optical properties, excellent process compatibility, and outstanding integration [7,8,9]. Color filter is one kind of common optical component that selectively reflects or transmits a specific wavelength in the visible light band and exhibits different colors. Green and blue primary colors are widely used in liquid crystal display, optical communication, sensor detection, imaging and a wide range of other fields [14,15]. By adjusting the orientation, period, depth, Nanomaterials 2019, 9, 70; doi:10.3390/nano9010070 www.mdpi.com/journal/nanomaterials

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Conclusion