IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms10479.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

High-contrast and fast electrochromic switching enabled by plasmonics

Author

Listed:
  • Ting Xu

    (National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing 210093, China
    Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology
    Maryland Nanocenter, University of Maryland, College Park)

  • Erich C. Walter

    (Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology
    Maryland Nanocenter, University of Maryland, College Park)

  • Amit Agrawal

    (Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology
    Maryland Nanocenter, University of Maryland, College Park)

  • Christopher Bohn

    (Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  • Jeyavel Velmurugan

    (Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology
    Maryland Nanocenter, University of Maryland, College Park)

  • Wenqi Zhu

    (Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology
    Maryland Nanocenter, University of Maryland, College Park)

  • Henri J. Lezec

    (Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  • A. Alec Talin

    (Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology
    Sandia National Laboratories)

Abstract

With vibrant colours and simple, room-temperature processing methods, electrochromic polymers have attracted attention as active materials for flexible, low-power-consuming devices. However, slow switching speeds in devices realized to date, as well as the complexity of having to combine several distinct polymers to achieve a full-colour gamut, have limited electrochromic materials to niche applications. Here we achieve fast, high-contrast electrochromic switching by significantly enhancing the interaction of light—propagating as deep-subwavelength-confined surface plasmon polaritons through arrays of metallic nanoslits, with an electrochromic polymer—present as an ultra-thin coating on the slit sidewalls. The switchable configuration retains the short temporal charge-diffusion characteristics of thin electrochromic films, while maintaining the high optical contrast associated with thicker electrochromic coatings. We further demonstrate that by controlling the pitch of the nanoslit arrays, it is possible to achieve a full-colour response with high contrast and fast switching speeds, while relying on just one electrochromic polymer.

Suggested Citation

  • Ting Xu & Erich C. Walter & Amit Agrawal & Christopher Bohn & Jeyavel Velmurugan & Wenqi Zhu & Henri J. Lezec & A. Alec Talin, 2016. "High-contrast and fast electrochromic switching enabled by plasmonics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-6, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10479
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10479
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10479
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms10479?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cheon Woo Moon & Youngji Kim & Jerome Kartham Hyun, 2022. "Active electrochemical high-contrast gratings as on/off switchable and color tunable pixels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Dinghui Chen & Zizheng Tong & Qiushi Rao & Xingchen Liu & Hong Meng & Wei Huang, 2024. "High-Performance Black Copolymers Enabling Full Spectrum Control in Electrochromic Devices," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Si-Zhe Sheng & Jin-Long Wang & Bin Zhao & Zhen He & Xue-Fei Feng & Qi-Guo Shang & Cheng Chen & Gang Pei & Jun Zhou & Jian-Wei Liu & Shu-Hong Yu, 2023. "Nanowire-based smart windows combining electro- and thermochromics for dynamic regulation of solar radiation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Jiao Geng & Liye Xu & Wei Yan & Liping Shi & Min Qiu, 2023. "High-speed laser writing of structural colors for full-color inkless printing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10479. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.