Enlarged Color Gamut Representation Enabled by Transferable Silicon Nanowire Arrays on Metal–Insulator–Metal Films

Abstract

Artificial structural colors arising from nanosized materials have drawn much attention because of ultrahigh resolution, durability, and versatile utilizations compared to conventional pigments and dyes. However, the limited color range with current approaches has interrupted the supply for upcoming structural colorimetric applications.Here, we suggest a strategy for the widening of the color gamut by linear combination of two different resonance modes originating from silicon nanowire arrays (Si NWAs) and metal−insulator−metal nanoresonators. The enlarged color gamut representations are simply demonstrated by transferring Si NWAs embedded in a flexible polymer layer without additional treatment/fabrication. Optical simulation is used to verify the additive creation of a new resonance dip, without disturbing the original mode, and provides "predictable" color reproduction. Furthermore, we prove that the proposed structures are applicable to well-known semiconductor materials for various flexible optical devices and other colorant applications.

Recent Advances in Vertically Aligned Nanowires for Photonics Applications

“…Photoreceptor cone cells mainly take charge of spectral responses (e.g., red, green and blue) collecting the color information [123]. For In Figure 6c, the range of structural colors was far expanded by stacking the Si nanowire arrays in PDMS membrane on the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) substrate as a bottom layer composed of Ag-SiO 2 -Ag layers [113]. According to the height of the SiO 2 layer, the reflectance dip position in MIM is changed from yellow to cyan (Figure 6d).…”

Flexible, Large‐Area Covert Polarization Display Based on Ultrathin Lossy Nanocolumns on a Metal Film

“…Recently developed concepts in structural color open up opportunities for future applications including nanocolor painting, chiral reflectors/filters, and digital microdisplays . Together with these possibilities, compared to conventional dyes/pigments, structural colors have improved potential for fine‐tunability of color achieved by controlling their dimensions, as well as for sustainable production, and durability.…”

“…Since most of these methods use dielectric/metallic nanostructures that resonate at a particular wavelength or for a particular polarization of light, in order to improve the optical performance, much attention has recently been paid to geometrical optimization and/or material selection . The reported experimental demonstrations are mainly achieved by elaborate processes (using e‐beam lithography or focused ion beam lithography) to define arrays of nanopatterns, however, practical use of such processes is restricted to overall lateral dimensions of less than a few millimeters.…”

Selective and Sensitive Photon Sieve Based on III–V Semiconductor Nanowire Forest Fabricated by Lithography‐Free Process

“…Photonic structures at the nano‐/micro‐scale are a powerful tool for manipulating light‐matter interaction, such as anti‐reflection, [ 1–4 ] perfect absorption, [ 5–7 ] and high scattering, [ 8,9 ] which are utilized in the field of optoelectronics. As one of the candidates for refractive index modulation, vertically oriented semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are promising because of i) their high refractive index and extinction coefficient that cause strong light–matter interactions, [ 10,11 ] ii) diverse functionalities (e.g., wavelength selectivity or broadband absorption) depending on structural parameters including period and diameter, [ 12–16 ] iii) mechanical softness intrinsic to one‐dimensional nanoscale structures, [ 17–19 ] and iv) inherent material advantages such as stability, [ 20,21 ] controllable electrical properties, [ 22–25 ] bio‐compatibility, [ 26,27 ] and mature fabrication/synthesis technologies. [ 10,11,24,28,29 ]…”

“…[ 33 ] Moreover, high efficiency photodetectors by various vertical compound semiconductor NWs were devised in ultraviolet (UV) range [ 34 ] and visible‐to‐near‐infrared (NIR) range [ 35 ] and even in thermal wave range. [ 36,37 ] Besides these active optical devices, the geometrically induced optical resonances of vertical NWs have contributed to the development of optical filters with high selectivity for multi‐band imaging, [ 38,39 ] high purity/changeable color filters, [ 13,18,40 ] and optical anti‐counterfeiting sticker. [ 15 ] However, these researches have focused on the collective optical feature of NWs and device performance, which could be observed and manifested in macroscopic scale.…”