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      Polarization-independent actively tunable colour generation on imprinted plasmonic surfaces

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          Abstract

          Structural colour arising from nanostructured metallic surfaces offers many benefits compared to conventional pigmentation based display technologies, such as increased resolution and scalability of their optical response with structure dimensions. However, once these structures are fabricated their optical characteristics remain static, limiting their potential application. Here, by using a specially designed nanostructured plasmonic surface in conjunction with high birefringence liquid crystals, we demonstrate a tunable polarization-independent reflective surface where the colour of the surface is changed as a function of applied voltage. A large range of colour tunability is achieved over previous reports by utilizing an engineered surface which allows full liquid crystal reorientation while maximizing the overlap between plasmonic fields and liquid crystal. In combination with imprinted structures of varying periods, a full range of colours spanning the entire visible spectrum is achieved, paving the way towards dynamic pixels for reflective displays.

          Abstract

          Plasmonic nanostructures are a promising alternative to conventional pixels, where their characteristics at the nanoscale offer many benefits. Franklin et al. combine plasmonic surfaces with liquid crystals to create voltage-tunable polarization-independent color pixels for reflective displays.

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          Most cited references28

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          Printing colour at the optical diffraction limit.

          The highest possible resolution for printed colour images is determined by the diffraction limit of visible light. To achieve this limit, individual colour elements (or pixels) with a pitch of 250 nm are required, translating into printed images at a resolution of ∼100,000 dots per inch (d.p.i.). However, methods for dispensing multiple colourants or fabricating structural colour through plasmonic structures have insufficient resolution and limited scalability. Here, we present a non-colourant method that achieves bright-field colour prints with resolutions up to the optical diffraction limit. Colour information is encoded in the dimensional parameters of metal nanostructures, so that tuning their plasmon resonance determines the colours of the individual pixels. Our colour-mapping strategy produces images with both sharp colour changes and fine tonal variations, is amenable to large-volume colour printing via nanoimprint lithography, and could be useful in making microimages for security, steganography, nanoscale optical filters and high-density spectrally encoded optical data storage.
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            Photonic-crystal full-colour displays

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              Surface effects and anchoring in liquid crystals

              B Jerome (1991)
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Nat Commun
                Nat Commun
                Nature Communications
                Nature Pub. Group
                2041-1723
                11 June 2015
                2015
                : 6
                : 7337
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Physics, University of Central Florida , 4111 Libra Drive, Physical Sciences Building 430, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA
                [2 ]NanoScience Technology Center, University of Central Florida , 12424 Research Parkway Suite 400, Orlando, Florida 32826, USA
                [3 ]CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida , 4304 Scorpius Street, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA
                Author notes
                Article
                ncomms8337
                10.1038/ncomms8337
                4490413
                26066375
                76c45db8-cc29-4af7-bd44-5e07b717936e
                Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved.

                This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

                History
                : 20 January 2015
                : 29 April 2015
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