Photonic band gap effect and structural color from silver nanoparticle gelatin emulsion

Abstract

We have fabricated planar structures of silver nanoparticles in monochromatic gelatin emulsion with a continuous spacing ranging from 0.15-0.40 micron using a two-beam interference of a single laser source. Our planar holograms display a colorful "rainbow" pattern and photonic bandgaps covering the visible and IR ranges. We model the planar silver nanoparticle-gelatin composite system using an effective medium approach and good agreement is obtained between theory and experiment.