Dynamic tuning of structural colors on plasmonic metasurfaces

Colors shape how we perceive the world. Structural colors, one of the main coloration mechanisms, arise from scattering and interference in micron- or nano-scale structures. Their unique characteristics make them most suitable for advanced color display technologies, data storage, and information encryption.

As a platform for displaying structural colors, plasmonic metasurfaces are being integrated with phase-change materials and electro-optical components to achieve dynamic tunability. However, thus far tunability relies on external thermal or electrical stimuli and polarization approaches enable tunable color generation, but independent control of hue, saturation, and brightness (HSB) remains a challenge.

Li et al. set out to address this limitation by creating a plasmonic metasurface based on an anisotropic Al nanopillar array. They investigated how geometric parameters affect HSB under cross-polarization and how the angles of the polarizer and analyzer affect dynamic tuning.

The team fabricated kaleidoscopic images and a rendition of “The Little Prince” to demonstrate the full-color image printing and three-dimensional display capabilities of their plasmonic metasurface.

“Hue and saturation are tuned via geometric parameters while brightness is independently controlled by the nanopillar rotation angle,” said author Lina Shi. “Dynamic color switching is realized simply by rotating the polarizer and analyzer angles, requiring no external heating, electric fields, or mechanical changes.”

The team looks to further expand the dynamic tuning capability of the plasmonic metasurface.

“As the next step, we plan to integrate a liquid crystal layer onto the metasurface to enable electrically tunable brightness and real-time HSB modulation,” said Shi. “Future work may also explore full-color holographic displays, active steganography, and scalable manufacturing for dynamic, polarization-switchable visual applications.”

Source: “Polarization-sensitive metasurfaces for tunable structural colors with HSB control,” by He Li, Jiebin Niu, Longjie Li, Chong Wang, Kaiping Zhang, Cheng Lu, Shengjie Zhao, Cheng Huang, Bin Li, Xiangyu Peng, Yidong Liu, Bin Yang, and Lina Shi, Applied Physics Letters (2026). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0326264 .