Tunable, omnidirectional structural color on reflection based on metal-SiOx-metal structure

Abstract

An omnidirectional structural color based on the metal-SiOx-metal stack structure is proposed, which can present the same perceived color for a broad range of incidence angles. The tunable structural color can be obtained with adjustable intermediate dielectric layer by simply adjusting the deposition condition, especially the oxygen flow rate during the deposition processes. The resonance condition can be satisfied across the whole visible light region with this special dielectric. The strong absorption caused by the resonance within the metal-SiOx-metal structure accounts for the efficient spectral filtering feature, and the constant phase shift within the dielectric layer leads to angle insensitivity of this color filter. This simple color tuning method for omnidirectional structural colors can have a great potential in various applications such as displaying, imaging, colorful decoration, anti-counterfeiting and so forth.