Direction‐Controllable Plasmonic Color Scanning by Using Laser‐Induced Bubbles

Because of the subwavelength pixel resolution, long‐term stability, and radiation resistance, plasmonic colors show great potential applications in high‐resolution color display, high‐density information storage, and stable color printing. Herein, laser‐induced bubbles are used to realize time‐ and direction‐controllable plasmonic color scanning in a metallic nanohole array, which can give rise to plasmonic colors. When the environment is changed from air to water, the peak wavelength of the metallic nanohole array is redshifted by ≈146 nm, and the color of the metallic nanohole array is changed from purple to yellow. Experimentally, these color changes are demonstrated when the water gradually covers the metallic nanohole array. More importantly, by using laser‐induced bubbles, time‐ and direction‐controllable plasmonic color scanning is achieved by controlling the movement speeds and positions of a control laser. Compared to the current state‐of‐the‐art plasmonic color scanning technology, the scanning time by using laser‐induced bubbles decreases by four orders of magnitude for the same scanning length. The time‐ and direction‐controllable color scanning provides additional degrees of freedom (scanning time and scanning direction), and it may have potential applications in information display, security, storage, and encoding. Plasmonic colors are spatially and temporally controlled by using a scanning laser to induce a bubble in water. The scanning time decreases by four orders of magnitude compared to that in the current plasmonic color scanning for the same scanning lengths. This color scanning provides additional degrees of freedom (scanning time and direction) in information display, security, storage, and encoding.