Structural coloring in large scale core-shell nanowires.

We demonstrated two complementary size-dependent structural coloring mechanisms, interference and scattering, in indefinitely long core-shell nanowire arrays. The unusual nanostructures are comprised of an amorphous semiconducting core and a polymer shell layer with disparate refractive indices but with similar thermomechanical properties. Core-shell nanowires are mass produced from a macroscopic semiconductor rod by using a new top-to-bottom fabrication approach based on thermal size reduction. Nanostructures with diameters from 30 to 200 nm result in coloration that spans the whole visible spectrum via resonant Mie scattering. Nanoshell coloration based on thin film interference is proposed as a structural coloration mechanism which becomes dominant for nanowires having 700-1200 nm diameter. Controlled color generation in any part of visible and infrared spectral regions can be achieved by the simple scaling down procedure. Spectral color generation in mass-produced uniform core-shell nanowire arrays paves the way for applications such as spectral authentication at nanoscale, light-scattering ingredients in paints and cosmetics, large-area devices, and infrared shielding.

[1]  N. Johnson,et al.  The New Generation of Physical Effect Colorants , 2008 .

[2]  Z. Kam,et al.  Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles , 1998 .

[3]  Pengyu Fan,et al.  Tuning the color of silicon nanostructures. , 2010, Nano letters.

[4]  Linyou Cao,et al.  Engineering light absorption in semiconductor nanowire devices. , 2009, Nature materials.

[5]  Mecit Yaman,et al.  Arrays of indefinitely long uniform nanowires and nanotubes. , 2011, Nature materials.

[6]  B Guizal,et al.  All-dielectric rod-type metamaterials at optical frequencies. , 2008, Physical review letters.

[7]  Shuichi Kinoshita,et al.  Physics of structural colors , 2008 .

[8]  Paul V. Braun,et al.  Materials science: Colour without colourants , 2011, Nature.

[9]  O. Shapira,et al.  Towards multimaterial multifunctional fibres that see, hear, sense and communicate. , 2007, Nature materials.

[10]  K. Vahala.  Optical microcavities : Photonic technologies , 2003 .

[11]  Zongfu Yu,et al.  Semiconductor nanowire optical antenna solar absorbers. , 2010, Nano letters.

[12]  M. Bayindir,et al.  Resonant transmission of light through surface plasmon structures , 2009 .

[13]  Paul Steinvurzel,et al.  Multicolored vertical silicon nanowires. , 2011, Nano letters.

[14]  Charles M. Lieber,et al.  Directed assembly of one-dimensional nanostructures into functional networks. , 2001, Science.

[15]  Xiangfeng Duan,et al.  Highly Polarized Photoluminescence and Photodetection from Single Indium Phosphide Nanowires , 2001, Science.

[16]  Peter Spahn,et al.  3D Bulk Ordering in Macroscopic Solid Opaline Films by Edge‐Induced Rotational Shearing , 2011, Advanced materials.

[17]  B. Temelkuran,et al.  Tight-binding description of the coupled defect modes in three-dimensional photonic crystals , 2000, Physical review letters.

[18]  Burak Temelkuran,et al.  External Reflection from Omnidirectional Dielectric Mirror Fibers , 2002, Science.

[19]  Shuichi Kinoshita,et al.  Structural colors in nature: the role of regularity and irregularity in the structure. , 2005, Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry.

[20]  Limin Tong,et al.  Single-nanowire single-mode laser. , 2011, Nano letters.