Diffraction manipulation of visible light with submicron structures for structural coloration fabrication

The structural coloration of glass induced by submicron structures is eco-friendly, ink-free, and has profound scientific significance. However, it is difficult to manufacture the submicron structures for glass optics due to the high hardness of glass and the miniature size of the microstructures. In this paper, the diffraction manipulation mechanism of groove shape to structural coloration and optimization theory are studied by establishing the theoretical and simulation mode. Moreover, a newly-developed axial-feed fly-cutting (AFC) technology and the PGM technology are introduced to precisely create the designed submicron V-shape grooves and structural color pattern on a Ni-P mold and then replicating them on a glass surface. Between these two kinds of typical submicron grooves that can be machined by mechanical cutting technology, it is found that the diffraction intensity and efficiency of V-shape grooves are higher than these of jagged-shape grooves, which indicates that V-shape grooves is more suitable to be used for structural coloration with high brightness. The structural color resolution is dramatically increased with the reduction of groove spacing and can be flexibly regulated by AFC, which significantly contributes to the structural coloration manufacturing. Structural pixel segments composed of submicron grooves are arranged row-by-row to form color patterns, and the letters of different colors are fabricated on the mold and transferred to the glass surface. Methods of optical diffraction manipulation, flexible manufacturing of submicron structures, and structural color image construction proposed in this paper for the production of a structural color pattern are beneficial to a wide range of fields.