Fano resonant optical coatings platform for full gamut and high purity structural colors.

Structural coloring is a photostable and environmentally friendly coloring approach that harnesses optical interference and nanophotonic resonances to obtain colors with a range of applications including display technologies, colorful solar panels, steganography, décor, data storage, and anticounterfeiting measures. We show that optical coatings exhibiting the photonic Fano Resonance present an ideal platform for structural coloring; they provide full color access, high color purity, high brightness, controlled iridescence, and scalable manufacturing. We show that an additional oxide film deposited on Fano resonant optical coatings (FROCs) increases the color purity (up to 99%) and color gamut coverage range of FROCs to 61% of the CIE color space.

Fano-resonant ultrathin film optical coatings.

Optical coatings are integral components of virtually every optical instrument. However, despite being a century-old technology, there are only a handful of optical coating types. Here, we introduce a type of optical coatings that exhibit photonic Fano resonance, or a Fano-resonant optical coating (FROC).