Multiscale models of plasmonic structural colors with nanoscale surface roughness

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Plasmonic coloration results from light interacting with metallic nanostructures.
• Surface roughness can alter these interactions, causing deviations in observed structural color.
• Accurate modeling of roughness is crucial for predicting and controlling plasmonic color.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of nanoscale surface roughness on structural coloration in silver nanohole arrays.
• To develop a computational visualization approach combining electrodynamic simulations and physically based rendering (PBR).
• To quantify the influence of different types of roughness (in-plane vs. out-of-plane) on coloration.

Main Methods:

• Utilized electrodynamic simulations to model light-nanostructure interactions.
• Incorporated physically based rendering (PBR) for photorealistic visualization.
• Modeled nanoscale roughness using a surface correlation function, varying parameters for in-plane and out-of-plane deviations.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated photorealistic visualizations of roughness effects on plasmonic coloration.
• Quantified the differential impact of out-of-plane versus in-plane roughness.
• Showed that out-of-plane roughness significantly alters coloration compared to in-plane roughness.

Conclusions:

• Nanoscale roughness critically influences structural coloration in plasmonic nanostructures.
• The developed computational method accurately visualizes and quantifies these effects.
• This approach is valuable for designing and understanding artificial coloration phenomena.