University of Central Florida Research Foundation Inc

Daniel Franklin

Debashis Chanda

Pablo Manuel Cencillo Abad

An inorganic paint pigment may include a fluid matrix, and paint flakes carried within the fluid matrix. Each paint flake may include a common aluminum layer having a first major surface and a second major surface opposing the first major surface, a first plasmonic aluminum reflector layer carried by the first major surface, and a second plasmonic aluminum reflector layer carried by the second major surface.

Inorganic paint pigment with plasmonic aluminum reflector layers and related methods

Color derived from metallic nanostructures are often more efficient, more robust to environmental changes, and near impossible to damage or bleach due to overexposure. The embodiments combine these advantages with the millisecond re-configurability of liquid crystals to actively control a reflective color of a metallic nanostructure. Of the current technologies that boast active color tunability, many are pigmentation based (e-ink in e-readers) and/or need seconds to change color (photonic ink, electrochromic materials). Speed is an advantage of the embodiments and is comparable to current liquid crystal displays (&#x2dc;120 Hz). Traditional LC displays use static polymer films (color filters) and white back light to generate color. Being able to actively tune the color from a single metallic nanostructure allows for smaller pixel size, increased resolution, and decreased fabrication cost compared to a conventional RGB color pixel without needing external white light source for extremely low power operations.

Liquid crystal tunable plasmonic color generation device, method and applications

A display device may include a substrate, a plasmonic aluminum reflector layer over the substrate, and a conducting oxide layer over the plasmonic aluminum reflector layer. The display device may have a circular polarizer over the conducting oxide layer and configured to receive incident visible radiation. The incident visible radiation may cause plasmon resonance within the plasmonic aluminum reflector layer. The display device may include a circuit configured to apply a voltage between the conducting oxide layer and the plasmonic aluminum reflector layer to cause the plasmonic aluminum reflector layer to selectively reflect the incident visible radiation based on the voltage.

Plasmonic aluminum particle based display device and related methods

Dynamic, color-changing surfaces have many applications including but not limited to displays, wearables, and active camouflage. Plasmonic nanostructures can fill this role with the advantages of ultra-small pixels, high reflectivity, and post-fabrication tuning through control of the surrounding media. However, while post-fabrication tuning have yet to cover a full red-green-blue (RGB) color basis set with a single nanostructure of singular dimensions, the present invention contemplates a novel LC-based apparatus and methods that enable such tuning and demonstrates a liquid crystal-plasmonic system that covers the full red/green/blue (RGB) color basis set, as a function only of voltage. This is accomplished through a surface morphology-induced, polarization dependent, plasmonic resonance and a combination of bulk and surface liquid crystal effects that manifest at different voltages. The resulting LC-plasmonic system provides an unprecedented color range for a single plasmonic nanostructure, eliminating the need for the three spatially static sub-pixels of current displays. The system's compatibility with existing LCD technology is possible by integrating it with a commercially available thin-film-transistor (TFT) array. The imprinted surface readily interfaces with computers to display images as well as video.

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Orlando, FL, United States of America

Daniel Franklin