Dynamically Tunable Plasmonic Structural Color
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University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2018 Dynamically Tunable Plasmonic Structural Color Daniel Franklin University of Central Florida Part of the Physics Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Franklin, Daniel, "Dynamically Tunable Plasmonic Structural Color" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 5880. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/5880 DYNAMICALLY TUNABLE PLASMONIC STRUCTURAL COLOR by DANIEL FRANKLIN B.S. Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2011 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Physics in the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2018 Major Professor: Debashis Chanda © 2018 Daniel Franklin ii ABSTRACT Functional surfaces which can control light across the electromagnetic spectrum are highly desirable. With the aid of advanced modeling and fabrication techniques, researchers have demonstrated surfaces with near arbitrary tailoring of reflected/transmitted amplitude, phase and polarization - the applications for which are diverse as light itself. These systems often comprise of structured metals and dielectrics that, when combined, manifest resonances dependent on structural dimensions. This attribute provides a convenient and direct path to arbitrarily engineer the surface’s optical characteristics across many electromagnetic regimes. But while many of these plasmonic systems struggle to compete with the efficiency of pre-existing technologies, the ability to tune plamsonic structures post-fabrication is a distinct advantage which may lead to novel devices. In this work, I will summarize fundamental and applied aspects of tunable plasmonic systems as applied to the visible and infrared regimes. I will demonstrate how liquid crystal may be used to dynamically and reversibly tune the plasmonic resonances of metallic surfaces on a millisecond time scale. For the visible, this results in dynamic color-changing surfaces capable of covering the entire RGB color space and which is compatible with active addressing schemes. I will then show the application of these concepts to infrared absorbers through the use of liquid crystal and phase change materials. The later of these devices can find use in infrared data/image encoding, thermal management and camouflage. Together, these works explore the limits of tunable plasmonic systems and the novel devices they might lead to. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The work performed herein would not have been possible without the unfailing support of those around me. I wish to thank my advisor, Professor Debashis Chanda, for his contagious passion, drive and consistent willingness to pursue new projects. It was amazing to feel that our work was limited only by the potential of our ideas and time. I would like to thank my labmates: Abraham Vazquez-Guardado, Sushrut Modak, Alireza Safaei, Ziqian He, Dr. Sayan Chandra, Aritra Biswas, Russel Frank, and Javaneh Boroumand. Many of us have worked together since the beginning and I can’t begin to thank you for the half- decade of experiences we’ve shared. I will always treasure the memories and hope many more will follow. I would like to thank my close collaborator and mentor, Professor Shin-Tson Wu, for being so generous with his time and resources. It was inspiring to see someone who has achieved so much also be so unfailing kind and humble. I would also like to thank the many members and friends within his group, especially: Yun-Han Lee, Ziqian He, Yuan Chen and Daming Xu for accepting me into their labs and homes. Lastly, I wish to thank my parents, Wendy and Gary, my sister Jessie, and partner, Alexa. It is tremendously empowering to feel the unconditional love and support you give. I don’t want to even imagine a life without you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ACRONYMS (or) ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................ xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURAL COLOR ....................................... 1 Background and Motivation ........................................................................................... 1 State-of-the-Art ............................................................................................................... 3 Dielectric Structural Color .......................................................................................... 4 Plasmonic Structural Color ......................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 2: LIQUID CRYSTAL TUNABLE PLASMONIC ........................................ 7 Polarization Independent Color ...................................................................................... 7 Liquid Crystal-Plasmonic System............................................................................... 8 Liquid Crystal Orientation on Nanostructured Surfaces ........................................... 12 Dispersion of Grating Coupled Plasmonic Resonances............................................ 15 Color Tunable Reflective Surfaces ........................................................................... 19 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 26 Full-Color Plasmonic Pixels and Active Addressing.................................................... 27 Surface Roughness Induced Polarization Dependence ............................................. 31 Hybrid Twisted Nematic LC Mode and Full RGB Color ......................................... 37 v Active and Passive Addressing Schemes .................................................................. 43 Angle Dependence of the LC-Plasmonic System ..................................................... 47 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 49 CHAPTER 3: ANGLE-INDEPENDENT PLASMONIC COLOR .................................. 52 Background ................................................................................................................... 52 Metal-Insulator-Metal Plasmonic Resonances ............................................................. 53 Resonance Conditions ............................................................................................... 54 Color Tuning Through Oxide Thickness .................................................................. 57 Angle Dependence .................................................................................................... 59 Fabrication Scale and Image Formation ................................................................... 61 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 62 Gap Resonances in Self-Assembled Nanoparticle Arrays ............................................ 63 Self-Assembled Plasmonic Color Surfaces .............................................................. 65 Mechanisms of Thin-Film Growth ........................................................................... 66 Particle Size Dependent Color .................................................................................. 68 Angle Independent Absorption ................................................................................. 72 Diffuse and Flexible Surfaces ................................................................................... 73 vi Integration of Black/Grey States with Plasmonic Color ........................................... 76 Active Addressing through Reflective TFT Arrays .................................................. 78 Prospects for Dynamic Color Tuning ....................................................................... 80 Future Work and Discussion ..................................................................................... 82 CHAPTER 4: TUNABLE PLASMONICS FOR INFRARED “COLOR” ...................... 85 Hyper Spectral Materials .............................................................................................. 85 Cavity Coupled Plasmonic System ........................................................................... 88 Spectral Dependence on Structural Dimensions ....................................................... 89 Role of Diffraction .................................................................................................... 92 Device Fabrication and Characterization .................................................................. 94 Covert Infrared Images ............................................................................................. 96 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 98 Liquid Crystal Integration and Dynamic Tuning .......................................................... 99 Suspended and Passively Addressed Infrared System ............................................ 101 Liquid Crystal Tuning Dynamics............................................................................ 102 Discussion ..............................................................................................................