Near-zero reflection of all-dielectric structural coloration enabling polarization-sensitive optical encryption with enhanced switchability

Abstract

Abstract Structural coloration using metasurfaces has been steadily researched to overcome the limitations of conventional color printing using pigments by improving the resolution, lowering the toxicity, and increasing the durability. Many metasurfaces have been demonstrated for dynamic structural coloration to convert images at the visible spectrum. However, the previous works cannot reach near-zero scattering when colors are turned-off, preventing it from being cryptographic applications. Herein, we propose a completely on/off switchable structural coloration with polarization-sensitive metasurfaces, enabling full-colored images to be displayed and hidden through the control of the polarization of incident light. It is confirmed that the nanostructure exhibits the polarization-dependent magnetic field distributions, and near-zero scattering is realized when the polarization of incident light is perpendicular to the long axis of the nanofins. Also, the metasurfaces are made up of triple-nanofin structures whose lengths affect locations of resonance peaks, resulting in full-color spectrum coverages. With such advantages, a QR code image, a two-color object image, and an overlapped dual-portrait image are obtained with the metasurfaces. Such demonstrations will provide potential applications in the fields of high-security information encryption, security tag, multichannel imaging, and dynamic displays.