Generation of structural colors with wide gamut based on stretchable transmission metasurfaces

Structural colors with high saturation, large gamut, high resolution, and tunable color are expected in practical applications. This work explores the generation of tunable structural color based on transmission metasurfaces. The designed metasurfaces consist of rectangular nanoholes etched in silver film, which is deposited on the stretchable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. The smaller separation of adjacent nanoholes makes the resolution of metasurface reach 63,500 dpi. The color gamut of the nanostructures reaches 146.9% sRGB. We also perform a comparison with the case on the glass substrate and analyze the incident polarization condition and the coating film of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The ultra-thin structure, high resolution, high-performance structural colors, and convenient transmission mode provide broad application prospects for metasurfaces in color displaying, color printing, and color holographic imaging.