Research team creates hybrid resonant metasurfaces with configurable structural colors

“Color is crucial,” as pop artist Roy Lichtenstein famously said, but the significance of color extends far beyond art. From the creation of Prussian blue—the first synthetic pigment—to quantum dots in modern display technology, colors and their creation have always mirrored technological progress.

Researchers at ETH Zurich’s Laboratory for Nanometallurgy have developed a new fabrication method for non-primitive metasurfaces, by which the colors of these metasurfaces represent and visualize light-matter interactions. The paper is published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials.

To showcase the capabilities of these metasurfaces, the researchers recreated Lichtenstein’s iconic “Sinking Sun” at the nanoscale. This reproduction illustrates how specific resonant states—or, in simpler terms, colors—can be engineered through careful manipulation of geometry and materials. As a result, these metasurfaces are ideally suited for encoding information in ways that remain visually imperceptible, offering a robust deterrent against counterfeiting.