Colour generation by plasmonic nanostructures and metasurfaces has several advantages over dye technology: reduced pixel area, sub-wavelength resolution and the production of bright and non-fading colours. However, plasmonic colour patterns need to be pre-designed and printed either by e-beam lithography (EBL) or focused ion beam (FIB), both expensive and not scalable processes that are not suitable for post-processing customization. Here we show a method of colour printing on nanoimprinted plasmonic metasurfaces using laser post-writing. Laser pulses induce transient local heat generation that leads to melting and reshaping of the imprinted nanostructures. Depending on the laser pulse energy density, different surface morphologies that support different plasmonic resonances leading to different colour appearances can be created. Using this technique we can print all primary colours with a speed of 1 ns per pixel, resolution up to 127,000 dots per inch (DPI) and power consumption down to 0.3 nJ per pixel.

We present reflective plasmonic colors based on the concept of localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) for plastic consumer products. In particular, we bridge the widely existing technological gap between clean-room fabricated plasmonic metasurfaces and the practical call for large-area structurally colored plastic surfaces robust to daily life handling. We utilize the hybridization between LSPR modes in aluminum nanodisks and nanoholes to design and fabricate bright angle-insensitive colors that may be tuned across the entire visible spectrum.

Plasmonic metasurface coloration has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its industrial potential. So far, demonstrations have been limited to small patterned areas fabricated using expensive techniques with limited scalability. This study elevates the technology beyond the common size and volume limitations of nanofabrication and demonstrates aluminum‐coated polymer‐based colored metasurfaces of square‐centimeter size by embossing, injection molding, roll‐to‐roll printing, and film insert molding. Different techniques are compared and the requirements and bottlenecks in terms of master fabrication, replication, metallization, and protection coating for large‐scale production of sub‐wavelength metasurfaces are discussed. Most notably, it is demonstrated that plasmonic metasurface colors are compatible with film insert molding. The results indicate a promising future for plasmonic colors as a viable alternative for decorating mass‐produced polymer parts.

Abstract. Structural colors are optical phenomena of physical origin, where microscale and nanoscale structures determine the reflected spectrum of light. Artificial structural colors have been realized within recent years. However, multilayer structures require substantial fabrication. Instead we considered one-layer surface textures of silicon. We explored four patterns of square structures in a square lattice with periods of 500, 400, 300, and 200 nm. The reflectivity and daylight-colors were measured and compared with simulations based on rigorously coupledwave analysis with excellent agreement. Based on the 200-nm periodic pattern, it was found that angle-independent specular colors up to 60 deg of incidence may be provided. The underlying mechanisms include (1) the suppression of diffraction and (2) a strong coupling of light to localized surface states. The strong coupling yields absorption anomalies in the visual spectrum, causing robust colors to be defined for a large angular interval. The result is a manifestation of a uniformly defined color, similar to pigment-based colors. These mechanisms hold potential for color engineering and can be used to explain and predict the structural-color appearance of silicon-based textures for a wide range of structural parameters.

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We report on a polarization-dependent plasmonic aluminumbased high-density metasurface operating at blue wavelengths. The fabricated sub-wavelength structures, tailored in size and geometry, possess strong, localized, plasmonic resonances able to control linear polarization. Best performance is achieved by rotating an elongated rectangular structure of length 180 nm and width 110 nm inside a square lattice of period 250 nm. In the case of 45 degrees rotation of the structure with respect to the lattice, the normal-incidence reflectance drops around the resonance wavelength of 457 nm from about 60 percent to below 2 percent. A. 106, 19227-19232 (2009). 9. X. Zhu, S. Xiao, L. Shi, X. Liu, J. Zi, O. Hansen, and N. A. Mortensen, "A stretch-tunable plasmonic structure with a polarization-dependent response," Opt. Express 20, 5237 (2012). 10. W. Chen, M. Tymchenko, P. Gopalan, X. Ye, Y. Wu, M. Zhang, C. B. Murray, A. Alu, and C. R. Kagan, "Largearea nanoimprinted colloidal Au nanocrystal-based nanoantennas for ultrathin polarizing plasmonic metasurfaces," Nano Lett. 15, 5254-5260 (2015). 11.

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