Polarization-controllable structure color based on the one-dimension stacked array with polarized absorption peaks

It's interesting that the artificial structure colors can be actively manipulated by external stimuli such as solvents, temperature, and mechanical force. In this paper, polarization state, the inherent characteristic of incident light, is used to control the structure color by a one-dimension metamaterial perfect absorber with polarized absorption peaks based on the stacked array. The nanostructure, consisting of two metal-dielectric pairs and a bottom metallic film, shows above 90% reflectivity from 652 nm to 750 nm (the red structure color) for TE and above 80% reflectivity from 584 nm to 635 nm (the orange structure color) for TM. Because our designed one-dimension absorber has the absorption peaks at 548 nm and 684 nm for TE and TM, respectively. So the polarization-controllable structure color gradually changes from red to orange when the polarization angles increase from 0 degrees (TE) to 90 degrees (TM). The underlying physical mechanisms of high absorptivity is explained by the electric and magnetic fields distribution.