Wide-Range Angle-Sensitive Plasmonic Color Printing on Lossy-Resonator Substrates

A sustainable, lithography-free process is demonstrated for generating non fading plasmonic colors with a prototype device that produces a wide range of vivid colors in red, green, and blue (RGB) ([0-1], [0-1], [0-1]) color space from violet (0.7, 0.72, 1) to blue (0.31, 0.80, 1) and from green (0.84, 1, 0.58) to orange (1, 0.58, 0.46). The proposed color-printing device architecture integrates a semi-transparent random metal film (RMF) with a metal back mirror to create a lossy asymmetric Fabry-Perot resonator. This device geometry allows for advanced control of the observed color through the five-degree multiplexing (Red-Green-Blue (RGB) color space, angle, and polarization sensitivity). An extended color palette is then obtained through photomodification process and localized heating of the RMF layer under various femtosecond laser illumination conditions at the wavelengths of 400 nm and 800 nm. Colorful design samples with total areas up to 10 mm2 and 100 mu m resolution are printed on 300-nm-thick films to demonstrate macroscopic personalized high-resolution color generation. The proposed printing approach can be extended to other applications including laser marking, anti-counterfeiting, and chromo-encryption. A wide variety of colors and fine-art designs are achieved through five-degree multiplexing (RGB color space, angle, and polarization sensitivity) and femtosecond laser modification of an asymmetric lossy resonator.image