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Photonic glass for high contrast structural color
Guoliang Shang1, Lukas Maiwald2, Hagen Renner2
1Institute of Optical and Electronic Materials, Hamburg University of Technology, Eissendorfer Strasse 38, 21073, Hamburg, Germany. guoliang.shang@tuhh.de.
Scientific Reports
|May 19, 2018
Summary
Structural colors from photonic glass lack saturation. Optimizing core-shell particle geometry with short-range order enhances color saturation by manipulating the refractive index distribution for sharper spectral features.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Photonics
- Optics
Background:
- Non-iridescent structural colors, known as photonic glass, utilize disordered arrangements of monodisperse spherical particles.
- These materials typically exhibit low color saturation due to gradual reflectivity spectrum transitions and broad Mie resonances.
- Optimization of simple spherical particles and reliance on short-range order alone are insufficient for sharp spectral features.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate synergetic effects between particle geometry and short-range order in photonic glasses.
- To enhance color saturation in structural color materials.
- To develop a method for achieving sharp spectral features in disordered photonic materials.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a first-order approximation and Ewald sphere construction to relate reflectivity to the Fourier transform of the permittivity distribution.
- Employed numerical simulations to confirm theoretical predictions.
- Investigated core-shell particles with tailored, non-monotonous refractive index distributions.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that combining specific particle geometry with short-range order significantly enhances color saturation.
- Showed that tailoring the substructure of core-shell particles, specifically their refractive index profile, leads to sharp spectral features.
- Achieved highly saturated colors through optimized core-shell particle design.
Conclusions:
- The synergetic effect between tailored particle geometry and short-range order is crucial for improving structural color saturation.
- Core-shell particles with a non-monotonous refractive index distribution are effective in generating sharp spectral features for vibrant colors.
- This approach offers a pathway to design advanced photonic materials with tunable and saturated structural colors.
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