Scattering of light by a single layer of randomly packed dielectric microspheres giving color effects in transmission.
Strong scattering properties are obtained for a monolayer of randomly packed polystyrene microspheres. This gives rise to structural colors in transmission. For a sphere diameter between 0.5 and 1 micron, light is mainly scattered in the forward direction. Consequently, in-plane multiple scattering can be neglected when spheres are not too close to each others. This allows one to use a single scattering approximation to reproduce transmission spectra of the system. The film color is dependent on the sphere size, but also on the observation angle. This angular dependant color is reproduced taking into account multiple scattering between spheres. These films can be useful when low reflection is needed.
Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology, CSEM SA, Jaquet-Droz 1, CH-2002 Neuchâtel, Switzerland. mickael.guillaumee@csem.ch
Mickaël
M
Guillaumée
Martha
M
Liley
Raphaël
R
Pugin
Ross P
RP
Stanley
D003116:Color; D003124:Colorimetry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017097:Electric Impedance; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D008863:Microspheres; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012031:Refractometry / Q000379:methods*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation