Fabrication of Optical Switching Patterns with Structural Colored Microfibers

Structural color was generated using electrospinning and hydrothermal growth of zinc oxide (ZnO). An aligned seed layer was prepared by electrospinning, and the hydrothermal growth time control was adjusted to generate various structural colors. The structural color changed according to the angle of the incident light. When the light was parallel to the direction of the aligned nanofibers, no pattern was observed. This pattern is referred to as an “optical switching pattern.” Replication using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) also enabled the generation of structural colors; this is an attractive approach for mass production. Additionally, the process is quite tunable because additional syntheses and etching can be performed after the patterns have been fabricated.