Abstract
(June 24, 2015) Structural colour arising from nanostructured metallic
surfaces offers many benefits compared to conventional pigmentation based
display technologies, such as increased resolution and scalability of their
optical response with structure dimensions. However, once these structures are
fabricated their optical characteristics remain static, limiting their
potential application. Here, by using a specially designed nanostructured
plasmonic surface in conjunction with high birefringence liquid crystals, we
demonstrate a tunable polarization-independent reflective surface where the
colour of the surface is changed as a function of applied voltage. A large
range of colour tunability is achieved over previous reports by utilizing an
engineered surface which allows full liquid crystal reorientation while
maximizing the overlap between plasmonic fields and liquid crystal. In
combination with imprinted structures of varying periods, a full range of
colours spanning the entire visible spectrum is achieved, paving the way
towards dynamic pixels for reflective displays.