Bright and Vivid Diffractive–Plasmonic Reflective Filters for Color Generation

The desire to reproduce vivid colors such as those found in birds, fishes, flowers, and insects has driven extensive research into nanostructured surfaces especially because of their high spatial resolution. Using a periodic silicon-patterned structure coated with aluminum, we combine two distinct and yet interconnected effects to produce bright and vivid color surfaces. A genetic algorithm optimization process was used to fine-tune both the diffraction and plasmonic effects to obtain reflective color filters for the red, green, and blue colors. The obtained structures are suitable for displays, image applications, color sensors, and optical filters.