Metasurface-based color display and holography have greatly advanced the state of the art display technologies. To further enrich the metasurface functionalities, recently a lot of research endeavors have been made to combine these two display functions within a single device. However, so far such metasurfaces have remained static and lack tunability once the devices are fabricated. In this work, we demonstrate a dynamic dual-function metasurface device at visible frequencies. It allows for switching between dynamic holography and dynamic color display, taking advantage of the reversible phase transition of magnesium through hydrogenation and dehydrogenation. Spatially arranged stepwise nanocavity pixels are employed to accurately control the amplitude and phase of light, enabling the generation of high-quality color prints and holograms. Our work represents a paradigm toward compact and multifunctional optical elements for future display technologies.
All-dielectric metasurfaces are promising candidates for the next-generation planar photonic devices. Magneto-optical (MO) all-dielectric metasurfaces are particularly attractive due to their enhanced MO response at the subwavelength scale. In this paper, we report a MO all-dielectric metasurface based on a Ce:YIG thin film and a two-dimensional array of the silicon nanoresonators. Compared to a bare Ce:YIG film, the device shows a four times enhancement of the Faraday effect and the MO figure of merit (FOM) at 1370 nm wavelength. The high Faraday rotation (FR) and FOM are caused by the increase in the interaction time between light and magnetic matter which is indicated by the local field increase inside the Ce:YIG film when exciting the hybrid Mie resonance-waveguide modes. Simultaneously enhanced FR and FOM make the dielectric MO metasurfaces promising candidates for free-space MO devices such as MO sensors, MO modulators, and nonreciprocal photonic devices.
Smart windows with tunable optical properties for energy-saving and privacy protection applications are receiving increasing attention. However, current studies of smart windows either involve the use of complex material preparation processes and complex device systems for window switching or continue to face several challenges, including low luminous transmittance, low luminous and solar modulation, and narrow wavelength range management problems. Here, we report a dual-responsive smart window that achieves solar light management in the range of 200–2500 nm. This smart window is fabricated by combining a reversible thermoresponsive hydrogel that acts as a thermochromic material with a ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer film that acts as a transparent heater. The as-prepared smart window can modulate solar light over a range from ultraviolet to infrared and achieves active responses to high-temperature weather, with passive responses being produced through electrical heating. The smart window shows high luminous transmittance (81.7%) and high luminous modulation (81.6%), together with an outstanding solar modulation performance (62.9%). In outdoor demonstrations, the as-prepared smart window exhibited a promising temperature regulation ability under strong solar irradiation. Therefore, the proposed smart window promises to provide a simple and effective energy management technology for buildings.
Complex three-dimensional (3D) microstructures are attracting more and more attention in many applications such as microelectromechanical systems, biomedical engineering, new materials, new energy, environmental protection, and wearable electronics. However, fabricating complex 3D microstructures by 3D printing techniques, especially those with long suspended structures, needs to introduce additional supporting structures, which are difficult to be removed. Here, we propose a simple method in which the supporting structures can be easily removed by optimizing their size and the grayscale value working with ultrasonic treatment in ethanol solution. The 3D microstructures and the supporting structures made of the same insoluble materials are fabricated simultaneously by using a projection microstereolithography system with a dynamic mask. The results demonstrate that the supporting structures play a key role in the fabrication of the long suspended structures while they can be easily removed. The removal time decreases with the increase in the height of the supporting microstructures, and the breaking force and shearing force of the supporting structures increase with the increase in their grayscale and the diameter. In addition, theory and the multiphysics simulation validate that the stress concentration at the top and the bottom of the supporting structures due to the cavitation from ultrasonic vibration dominates the removal of the supporting structures. Finally, a tree-like structure is precisely fabricated by using our method. The present study provides a new way for the removal of the supporting structures for 3D printed suspended microstructures.
Planar heterostructures composed of two or more adjacent structures with different materials are a kind of building blocks for various applications in surface plasmon resonance sensors, rectifiers, photovoltaic devices, and ambipolar devices, but their reliable fabrication with controllable shape, size, and positioning accuracy remains challenging. In this work, we propose a concept for fabricating planar heterostructures via directional stripping and controlled nanofractures of metallic films, with which self-aligned, multimaterial, multiscale heterostructures with arbitrary geometries and sub-20 nm gaps can be obtained. By using a split ring as the template, the asymmetric nanofracture of the deposited film at the split position results in nonreciprocal peeling of the film in the split ring. Compared to the conventional processes, the final heterostructures are defined only by their outlines, thus providing the ability to fabricate complex heterostructures with higher resolutions. We demonstrate that this method can be used to fabricate heterodimers, multimaterial oligomers, and multiscale asymmetrical electrodes. An Ag−MoS 2 −Au photodiode with a strong rectification effect is fabricated based on the nanogap heterostructures prepared by this method. This technology provides a unique and reliable approach to define nanogap heterostructures, which are supposed to have potential applications in nanoelectronics, nanoplasmonics, nanooptoelectronics, and electrochemistry.
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