On Friday, a group of British scientists from published in Science Advances with a story about the development of a promising technology for the production of relatively inexpensive screens of almost unlimited sizes. Do not be confused by the mention of Friday and the British scientists who have set the teeth on edge. Everything is honest and serious. The research is based on the study and use of long-known quasiparticles within the framework of the physical phenomena of plasmonics. In short, plasmons are a cloud of electrons on the surface of a material. They have certain collective properties and, depending on a number of factors, can emit light in the visible range with a given wavelength (color).
Scientists from Cambridge have developed a technology for the mass production of screens based on plasmons. The smallest particles of gold were covered with conductive plastic polyaniline and evenly sprayed on a plastic surface with a pre-applied mirror coating. Each grain of gold on the surface is the basis for a miniature pixel, which is a million times smaller than the screens of modern smartphones. The technology is very simple for mass production, which the developers insist on. Such screens with billions of pixels per meter can be produced as a continuous tape at high speed. We are talking about the production of flexible displays literally the size of the wall of a multi-storey building.
Light falling on such a screen is trapped between plastic-coated gold nanoparticles. The conductive plastic coating under the influence of a control voltage in a given way changes the chemical properties and causes a change in the wavelength of reflected light in a wide spectrum (the wavelength can be reduced to 100 nm or less). The pixel begins to glow with the specified color and, importantly, this state is bistable, which does not require power to maintain the selected color.
The prospects for such screens are huge - from information to camouflage. The highest resolution will allow you to hide a fighter even in open areas, and the application in architecture will open the way to new and unusual solutions. Displays for electronics will also get a boost. They will be well read in bright sunlight and will cease to be the most active battery eaters. But before that, there is still a long way to go, improving and developing technology. In particular, a team of scientists began working on expanding the color range of displays based on the presented technology. More information about development can be found in in Science Advances. To read it (in English), registration is not required.
Source: 3dnews.ru