Advances in Photonic Crystal Research for Structural Color

Abstract

Structural color is a remarkable physical phenomenon that exists widely in nature. Unlike traditional color rendering methods, they are realized mainly through micro/nanostructures that interfere, diffract, scatter light, and exhibit long‐life and environmental‐friendly color effects. In nature, a few organisms use their color‐changing system to transmit information, such as courtship, warning, or disguise. Meanwhile, some natural inorganic minerals can also exhibit structural colors. Learning from nature, scientists have achieved large‐scale structural color design and manufacturing technology for artificial photonic crystals. Photonic crystals have a unique microstructure that forms a band gap under the action of the periodic potential field, consequently causing Bragg scattering due to the periodic arrangement of different refractive index media within them. Because of the apparent photonic band gap and the ability to form local photons at crystal defects, photonic crystals have been extensively studied in recent years and have broad application prospects in photonic fibers, optical computers, chips, and other fields. In this review, the research, properties, and applications of photonic crystals in recent years are presented, as well as insight into the future developments of photonic crystals.