Numerical and Experimental Study of the Structural Color by Widening the Pore Size of Nanoporous Anodic Alumina

Abstract

The structural color originated from the nanoporous anodic alumina (NAA) film is related to the structural characteristics. This paper aimed to obtain different structural colors which can cover the whole visible range by widening the pore size of metal-coated NAA. First, we used the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method to analyze the relationship between the physical structure and optical properties. Then, we fabricated different colors and expected color pattern by widening the pore diameter of NAA. Numerical and experimental study shows that the colors can cover the whole visible range by widening the pore diameter. This work can not only lead to better understanding of the mechanism of tuning color on NAA film, but also help us to fabricate expected color in the whole light range.