Coloring and color enhancement on noble metals rendered by plasmonic effects via multi-burst picosecond pulses

Abstract

We report the angle-independent creation of full color palettes on the surface of silver, gold, copper and aluminum. We show significant color saturation of up to ∼69% and an increase in the lightness range by up to ∼ 60% with the use of multi-burst picosecond pulses. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations show that high-spatial frequency LIPSS (HSFL) are responsible for the improvements. In addition, we show the passivation and tuning of the colors with the thickness of alumina deposited by atomic layer deposition.