Laser-written colours on silver

optical effect of alumina coating

authored by

Jean Michel Guay, Antonino Calà Lesina, Graham Killaire, Peter G. Gordon, Choloong Hahn, Sean T. Barry, Lora Ramunno, Pierre Berini, Arnaud Weck

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the optical response of laser-written plasmonic colours on silver coated via the atomic layer deposition of alumina. These colours are due to nanoparticles distributed on a flat surface and on a surface with periodic topographical features (i.e. ripples). The colours are observed to shift with increasing alumina film thickness. The colours produced by surfaces with ripples recover their original vibrancy and hue after the deposition of film of thickness ~60 nm, while colours arising from flat surfaces gradually fade and never recover. Analysis of the surfaces identifies periodic topographical features to be responsible for this behaviour. Finite-difference time-domain simulations unravel the role played by the alumina thickness in colour formation and confirm the rotations and recovery of colours for increasing alumina thickness. The coloured surfaces were evaluated for applications in colourimetric and radiometric sensing showing large sensitivities of up to 3.06/nm and 3.19 nm/nm, respectively. The colourimetric and radiometric sensitivities are observed to be colour dependent.

External Organisation(s)

University of Ottawa
Carleton University

Type

Article

Journal

Nanophotonics

Volume

8

Pages

807-822

No. of pages

16

ISSN

2192-8606

Publication date

04.03.2019

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Biotechnology, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2018-0202 (Access: Open)