Since ancient times, plasmonic structural coloring has inspired humanity; glassmakers achieved vibrant colors by doping glass with metal nanoparticles to craft beautiful objects such as the Roman Lycurgus cup and stained glass. These lovely color filtering effects are a consequence of the resonant coupling of light and free electrons in metal nanoparticles, known as surface plasmons. Thanks to the continuing improvement of nanofabrication technology, the dimensions of nanoparticles and structures can now be precisely engineered to form “optical nanoantennas,” allowing for control of optical response at an unprecedented level. Recently, the field of plasmonic structural coloring has seen extensive growth. In this review, we provide an up-to-date overview of various plasmonic color filtering approaches and highlight their uses in a broad palette of applications. Various surface plasmon resonance modes employed in the plasmonic color filtering effect are discussed. We first review the development of the pioneering static plasmonic colors achieved with invariant optical nanoantennas and ambient environment, then we address a variety of emerging approaches that enable dynamic color tuning, erasing, and restoring. These dynamic color filters are capable of actively changing the filtered colors and carrying more color information states than the static systems. Thus, they open an avenue to high-density data storage, information encryption, and plasmonic information processing. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future perspectives in this exciting research area.
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December 2019
Review Article|
October 25 2019
Colors with plasmonic nanostructures: A full-spectrum review
Maowen Song;
Maowen Song
1
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
2
Key Lab of Optoelectronic Technology and Systems of Education Ministry of China, Chongqing University
, Chongqing 400044, China
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Di Wang
;
Di Wang
1
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
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Samuel Peana
;
Samuel Peana
1
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
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Sajid Choudhury;
Sajid Choudhury
1
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
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Piotr Nyga
;
Piotr Nyga
1
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
3
Institute of Optoelectronics, Military University of Technology
, 2 gen. Sylwestra Kaliskiego Street, Warsaw 00-908, Poland
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Zhaxylyk A. Kudyshev;
Zhaxylyk A. Kudyshev
1
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
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Honglin Yu;
Honglin Yu
2
Key Lab of Optoelectronic Technology and Systems of Education Ministry of China, Chongqing University
, Chongqing 400044, China
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Alexandra Boltasseva;
Alexandra Boltasseva
1
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
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Vladimir M. Shalaev;
Vladimir M. Shalaev
1
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
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Alexander V. Kildishev
Alexander V. Kildishev
a)
1
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, 1205 West State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
a) Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: kildishev@purdue.edu
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a) Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: kildishev@purdue.edu
Appl. Phys. Rev. 6, 041308 (2019)
Article history
Received:
May 14 2019
Accepted:
September 16 2019
Citation
Maowen Song, Di Wang, Samuel Peana, Sajid Choudhury, Piotr Nyga, Zhaxylyk A. Kudyshev, Honglin Yu, Alexandra Boltasseva, Vladimir M. Shalaev, Alexander V. Kildishev; Colors with plasmonic nanostructures: A full-spectrum review. Appl. Phys. Rev. 1 December 2019; 6 (4): 041308. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5110051
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