High-contrast and fast electrochromic switching enabled by plasmonics

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10479
• Publication Date: 2016-01-27T11:50:55Z
• Authors: Ting Xu; Erich C. Walter; Amit Agrawal; Christopher Bohn; Jeyavel Velmurugan; Wenqi Zhu; Henri J. Lezec; A. Alec Talin
• Keywords: Electrochromic devices; High contrast

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, well the complexity of having combine several distinct achieve a full-colour gamut, limited niche applications. Here we fast, high-contrast by significantly enhancing interaction light—propagating deep-subwavelength-confined surface plasmon polaritons through arrays metallic nanoslits, with an polymer—present ultra-thin coating on slit sidewalls. The switchable configuration retains short temporal charge-diffusion characteristics thin films, while maintaining high optical contrast associated thicker coatings. We further demonstrate that controlling pitch nanoslit arrays, it is possible response fast speeds, relying just one polymer.