Colour gamuts arising from absorber–dielectric–metal optical resonators

Abstract

Structural coloration is a quickly growing field, encompassing physical and photonic processes such as interference, diffraction, and scattering. In this study, we investigated the optical effects in the visible wavelength range, and in particular, the colour gamuts achievable with absorber–dielectric–metal sandwich structures. These chemical‐free layered structures are highly tunable, easily scaled, optical cavities that are capable of generating remarkable colours whose properties are determined completely by material and structural parameters. We employed experimental and numerical strategies to demonstrate that each absorber spans a unique colour gamut, i.e. a subset of the full chromaticity space. While gamut overlap is observed between different absorber types, the gamut areas unique to each absorber occur at different hues of high excitation purity. A comprehensive understanding of how these colour gamuts develop and how different materials may be combined to expand larger subsets of the chromaticity space is required in order to maximize the variety of colours achievable with this system and elevate it into a ‘structural coloration technology’.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Aug 22, 2017
Source ID
10.1111/cote.12301

Entities

People

  • De He
  • Declan Oller
  • Domenico Pacifici
  • Gustavo E Fernandes
  • Jimmy Xu
  • Jin Ho Kim

Organizations

  • Brown University
  • National Science Foundation
  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.

Technology Areas

  • Space