Title: Controllable multiple structural colours on the same substrate

Authors: Xi Li; Yi Liu; Jiawen Li; Wenhao Huang

Addresses: Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA, USA. ' Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China. ' Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China

Abstract: In this paper, patterns with different colours have been fabricated on the same surface. Particular masks have been made in order to realise the fabrication of different patterns. To reduce the edge effect of the film process, we chose metal as the mask, whose edge can be rather flat after processing by the linear cutting method. After the electron beam evaporation, multi-films have been fabricated, and an obvious edge is visible after the evaporation. In the experiment, we designed the films using an improved quarter film system, the three-quarter film system, which can exhibit a narrower band width, and thus can obtain brighter colours. In this paper, we managed to fabricate a butterfly pattern and an Olympic five-circle pattern on the optical glass substrate. This approach can be applied widely to structure colour fabrication, since such long-lasting bright colours without pigment will be more environmental.

Keywords: structural colours; multi-films; nanofabrication; mask; electron beam evaporation; nanotechnology; optical glass substrate; colour fabrication; long-lasting colours; bright colours; pigment; colour patterns.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNM.2011.043693

International Journal of Nanomanufacturing, 2011 Vol.7 No.5/6, pp.528 - 536

Received: 25 Nov 2010
Accepted: 25 Apr 2011
Published online: 07 Mar 2015 *

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