Abstract
Reflective structural colors are of interest for many applications as alternatives to dyes and pigments and many different solutions have been proposed. The ideal systems should provide high reflectance efficiency while keeping good chromaticity and offering tunability throughout the visible spectral range. It is challenging to achieve such combined features with a simple single structure. Here we address this challenge using a concept that combines the Fabry–Pérot effect with a broadband absorbing layer. Our easy-to-fabricate structures form highly reflective optical nanocavities with improved chromaticity throughout the visible compared with the two separate concepts. The addition of an additional cavity layer and a transparent top coating further improves the chromaticity and allows the formation of black surfaces.
Highlights
Plasmon-based systems, MIM optical cavities are typically easier to fabricate and tune and they can provide high reflection efficiency. While they can be efficient for transmissive color filters [25], it is less straightforward to use them for reflective structural coloration due to their spectrally sharp absorption and broadband non-resonant reflection
The experimental results are somewhat blue shifted compared with the simulations, as attributed to small differences in layer thicknesses and not perfectly flat gold when deposited on poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) at low thicknesses
The main disadvantage of FP cavities is that they produce absorption peaks instead of reflection peaks, which makes them less suitable for RGB structural colors in reflection mode
Summary
Many different approaches have been proposed for generation of reflective structural colors [1, 2], including plasmonic systems [3,4,5,6,7,8,9], Mie resonators [10,11,12,13], diffraction gratings [14], photonic crystals [15,16,17], and various types of optical nanocavities [1, 18,19,20,21,22,23]. Plasmon-based systems, MIM optical cavities are typically easier to fabricate and tune and they can provide high reflection efficiency While they can be efficient for transmissive color filters [25], it is less straightforward to use them for reflective structural coloration due to their spectrally sharp absorption and broadband non-resonant reflection. These issues have been addressed using porous or structured top metal layers [26], including plasmonic metal nanohole layers [27, 28].
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