Colors with plasmonic nanostructures: A full-spectrum review
Abstract
Since ancient times, plasmonic structural coloring has inspired humanity; glassmakers achieved vibrant colors by doping glass with metal nanoparticles to craft beautiful objects such as the Roman Lycurgus cup and stained glass. These lovely color filtering effects are a consequence of the resonant coupling of light and free electrons in metal nanoparticles, known as surface plasmons. Thanks to the continuing improvement of nanofabrication technology, the dimensions of nanoparticles and structures can now be precisely engineered to form “optical nanoantennas,” allowing for control of optical response at an unprecedented level. Recently, the field of plasmonic structural coloring has seen extensive growth. In this review, we provide an up-to-date overview of various plasmonic color filtering approaches and highlight their uses in a broad palette of applications. Various surface plasmon resonance modes employed in the plasmonic color filtering effect are discussed. We first review the development of the pioneering static plasmonic colors achieved with invariant optical nanoantennas and ambient environment, then we address a variety of emerging approaches that enable dynamic color tuning, erasing, and restoring. These dynamic color filters are capable of actively changing the filtered colors and carrying more color information states than the static systems. Thus, they open an avenue to high-density data storage, information encryption, and plasmonic information processing. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future perspectives in this exciting research area.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 25, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.5110051
Entities
People
- Alexander V. Kildishev
- Alexandra Boltasseva
- Di Wang
- Hong-Lin Yu
- Maowen Song
- Piotr Nyga
- Sajid Muhaimin Choudhury
- Samuel Peana
- Vladimir Shalaev
- Zhaxylyk A Kudyshev
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Chongqing University
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Military University of Technology
- Purdue University