Plasmonic color printing

Abstract

In this paper we present our recent work on plasmonic color printing using metallic nanostructures. This is a new form of structural color where colors arise due to the local resonances of metallic nanostructures instead of diffractive effects. These metal nanostructures combined with a backreflector support plasmon resonances that can span the entire visible range by varying the dimensions of the structures. As the structures are in the ~100 nm length scale are based on metals, plasmonic color printing enables high resolution and fade-free prints. We show experimental results and compare calculated reflectance spectra from metals such as gold, silver and aluminum used in creating miniaturized color images on Si substrates.