Polarization-switchable structural colors generated by AlN metasurfaces and the effect of different substrates

Abstract

Metasurfaces have the capability to boost the generation of distinct colors by improving the interaction between surface materials and photons. We present a straightforward and polarization-tunable aluminum nitride metasurface. This metasurface enables the display and concealment of the composition pattern and exhibits color switching by modifying the polarization state of the incident light. We further explore the impact of different substrates on metasurface performance. The results indicate that the full width at half maximum of the reflectance curves increases with the increase of the refractive index between the nanostructures and the substrate material, which leads to a broader dispersion of the structural colors in the spectrum. Moreover, the sizes of the nanostructures can be gradually reduced for the substrate with a high refractive index. These findings not only offer polarization-tunable structural color metasurfaces but also provide essential insights in selecting nanostructure and substrate materials, which will help in the design of nanostructures for such metasurfaces.