Full-Color Reflective Filters in a Large Area with a Wide-Band Tunable Absorber Deposited by One-Step Magnetron Sputtering

Full-color reflective filters for large area applications with potentially unprecedented color saturation and excellent mechanical properties deposited by one-step magnetron sputtering are proposed. Conventional reflective color filters with multiple layers of dielectric films cannot simultaneously produce a large area and good mechanical properties due to the complex multiple depositions and the difference in the thermal expansion coefficients among the material layers. Herein, full-spectrum colors are generated by novel Mg-based reflective color filters in a large area of 2 cm x 2 cm with a high hardness of 9.12 GPa, where the filters include an absorber layer with controllable optical constants and a reflective layer with an amorphous structure. The saturation and hue of the produced colors can be controlled by tuning the optical constants and the thickness of the absorber layer. Additionally, the hardness of the Mg-based reflective color filters is increased by the reflective metallic glass layers because they are derived from the same material as the absorber layer. This paradigm can pave the way for the efficient fabrication of large area color filtering devices for diverse applications, such as surface decorations, optical components, color display devices, structural color printing, and photovoltaic cells with optimum efficiency.