Facile fabrication of micro-grooves based photonic crystals towards anisotropic angle-independent structural colors and polarized multiple reflections

Tailorable and Angle-Independent Colors from Synthetic Brochosomes

Although various artificial dyes and pigments have been invented, certain application fields need structural colors because they can last for centuries even under harsh conditions. Here, we report that the antireflective Ag brochosomes (soccer-ball-like microscale granules covered by nanobowls) become colorful when the nanobowls on the Ag brochosomes are filled by polystyrene (PS) nanospheres. The color originates from the enhanced electromagnetic resonances of the PS nanospheres by the surrounding metallic nanobowls, suggested by both the experimental and the simulation results. The color is determined by the size of the PS nanospheres. We can tailor the color simply by reducing the diameter of the PS nanospheres via the plasma etching treatment. The color intensity of the Ag brochosomes filled with PS nanospheres shows weak dependence on the observing angles, benefiting from their spherical shape. Plasma etching treatment of the Ag brochosomes filled with PS nanospheres through different masks can design various structural color patterns. The simple fabrication process and the easy processability make the Ag brochosomes filled with PS nanospheres have promising applications in the structural color fields.

When Chirophotonic Film Meets Wrinkles: Viewing Angle Independent Corrugated Photonic Crystal Paper

Light manipulation strategies of nature have fascinated humans for centuries. In particular, structural colors are of considerable interest due to their ability to control the interaction between light and matter. Here, wrinkled photonic crystal papers (PCPs) are fabricated to demonstrate the consistent reflection of colors regardless of viewing angles. The nanoscale molecular self-assembly of a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) with a microscale corrugated surface is combined. Fully polymerizable CLC paints are uniaxially coated onto a wrinkled interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) substrate. Photopolymerization of the helicoidal nanostructures results in a flexible and free-standing PCP. The facile method of fabricating the wrinkled PCPs provides a scalable route for the development of novel chirophotonic materials with precisely controlled helical pitch and curvature dimensions. The reflection notch position of the flat PCP shifts to a lower wavelength when the viewing angle increased, while the selective reflection wavelength of wrinkled PCP is remained consistent regardless of viewing angles. The optical reflection of the 1D stripe-wrinkled PCP is dependent on the wrinkle direction. PCPs with different corrugated directions can be patterned to reduce the angular-dependent optical reflection of wrinkles. Furthermore, 2D wavy-wrinkled PCP is successfully developed that exhibit directionally independent reflection of color.

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.

A fluid-guided printing strategy for patterning high refractive index photonic microarrays

High refractive index (HRI, n > 1.8) photonic structures offer strong light confinement and refractive efficiencies, cover the entire visible spectrum and can be tuned by designing geometric arrayed features. However, its practical applications are still hindered by the applicability and material limitation of lithography-based micro/nano fabrication approaches. Herein, we demonstrate a fluid-guided printing process for preparing HRI selenium microarrays. The microstructured flexible template is replicated from the diced silicon wafer without any lithography-based methods. When heated above the glass transition temperature, the flow characteristics of selenium endows the structure downsizing and orientation patterning between the target substrate and the template. Near 10 times narrowing selenium microarrays (1.9 μm width) are patterned from the non-lithography template (18 μm width). HRI selenium microarrays offer high refractive efficiencies and strong optical confinement abilities, which achieve angle-dependent structurally coloration and polarization. Meanwhile, the color difference can be recognized under the one degree distinction of the angle between incident and refracted light. This printing platform will facilitate HRI optical metasurfaces in a variety of applications, ranging from photonic sensor, polarization modulation to light manipulation.

Angle-dependent structural colors in a nanoscale-grating photonic crystal fabricated by reverse nanoimprint technology

The structural color of angle-sensitive photonic crystals has attracted great interest because of a possible application in visual sensors. The appearance of a photonic crystal is mainly influenced by the optical properties, structural parameters and the observation angle. In this work, an angle-sensitive photonic crystal with nanoscale gratings was fabricated through reverse nanoimprint lithography. The periodicity and the structural color were investigated through measuring reflection spectra. The structural color of the photonic crystal has a period of 90°. Distinctive colors spanning the entire visible spectrum can be seen when the crystal is rotated. In addition, there is a blue-shift of the peak wavelength when the observation angle is increased. An equation for the observed wavelength as a function of the observation angle is proposed.

Rapid Fabrication of Noniridescent Structural Color Coatings with High Color Visibility, Good Structural Stability, and Self-Healing Properties

Artificial construction of amorphous photonic structures (APSs) is an important approach for obtaining noniridescent structural colors and shows a great potential for practical applications in paints, textile coloring, display, or other color-related fields. However, the structural colors are usually dim because of the influence of incoherent scattering, and the point contact among the microspheres leads to poor structural stability. This paper presents an innovative strategy for constructing noniridescent structural color coatings with high color visibility, good structural stability, and self-healing properties by combining APSs with polymers. Color visibility is significantly improved without the addition of black light-absorbing substances because of the inherent properties of polysulfide microspheres. At the same time, the introduction of waterborne polyurea in the system enhanced the structural stability and imparted the self-healing properties. The prepared coatings can be applied to various substrates and even to the coloration of soft fabrics, which not only achieves excellent performance but can also be easily patterned on the bulk scale.

Superwettable colloidal crystal micropatterns on butterfly wing surface for ultrasensitive detection

HYPOTHESIS

Ultrasensitive detections with enrichment approaches based on hydrophilic-hydrophobic patterns have attracted increasing attention in the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. However, most of these techniques involve complicated micro-fabrications and chemical modifications to achieve their specific pattern substrate wettability. Hence, the development of a simple and effective approach for the construction of new surface wettability techniques for ultrasensitive detection is with great expectations.

EXPERIMENTS

We present a simple approach to fabricate the superwettable colloidal crystal (CC) micropatterns on superhydrophobic Morpho butterfly wing surface for the ultrasensitive detection. The superwettable CC micropatterns were easily obtained by infiltrating and self-assembling monodispersed silica colloidal nanoparticles on the plasma treated butterfly wing patterns. The analytes could be enriched onto the hydrophilic CC area due to the wettability difference between the hydrophilic CC area and the superhydrophobic substrate.

FINDINGS

It was demonstrated that the detection limit of thrombin was down to 1.8 × 10^-13 mol L^-1 based on the fluorophore-labeled aptamer. Moreover, with two-dimensional position codes of these CC micropatterns for different probes, the multiplex detection capability was also demonstrated with great accuracy. As the elimination of complex instruments and chemical modifications, this proposed platform offers a simple strategy for ultrasensitive multiplex detection in practical applications.

Biomaterial-Based "Structured Opals" with Programmable Combination of Diffractive Optical Elements and Photonic Bandgap Effects

Naturally occurring iridescent systems produce brilliant color displays through multiscale, hierarchical assembly of structures that combine reflective, diffractive, diffusive, or absorbing domains. The fabrication of biopolymer-based, hierarchical 3D photonic crystals through the use of a topographical templating strategy that allows combined optical effects derived from the interplay of predesigned 2D and 3D geometries is reported here. This biomaterials-based approach generates 2D diffractive optics composed of 3D nanophotonic lattices that allow simultaneous control over the reflection (through the 3D photonic bandgap) and the transmission (through 2D diffractive structuring) of light with the additional utility of being constituted by a biocompatible, implantable, edible commodity textile material. The use of biopolymers allows additional degrees of freedom in photonic bandgap design through directed protein conformation modulation. Demonstrator structures are presented to illustrate the lattice multifunctionality, including tunable diffractive properties, increased angle of view of photonic crystals, color-mixing, and sensing applications.