Light is critical for art. It allows us to see color, and can itself be a tool for creating unique pieces of art and design. Here we demonstrate that a laser can be a multifunctional and effective tool for the creation of masterpieces, analogous to the process of an artist creating a canvas with classical paints and brushes. We investigate the interaction between focused laser irradiation and metallic surfaces and analyze the optical effects in thin oxide films for three main artistic operations: color making, multiple color changes, and erasing managed by a nanosecond laser. These processes are possible upon heating the material above the evaporation point and are proved to be dependent on the cooling rate, according to both experimental and theoretical results. Such an interference-based laser paintbrush could find applications in modern art and design.

We offer to use optical features of surface plasmon resonance in Ag nanoparticles for jewelry application as a method for the well-controlled decoration of silver items. The novel approach of silver nanoparticles formation with sizes from 5 to 50 nm via nanosecond direct laser writing allows for controlling the reflectance spectra, thus creating a color image on precious metals with a high resolution of about 450 dpi without dyes or hazardous chemicals. Moreover, the large-scale color image can be applied in single-step processing with significant productivity of 2 cm² per minute. This work opens a strong direction for the practical application in the jewelry industry, art, and coining.

Optical nanogratings are widely used for different optical, photovoltaic, and sensing devices. However, fabrication methods of highly ordered gratings with the period around optical wavelength range are usually rather expensive and time consuming. In this article, we present high speed single-step approach for fabrication of highly ordered nanocomposite gratings with a period of less than 355 nm. For the purpose, we used commercially available nanosecond-pulsed fiber laser system operating at the wavelength of 355 nm. One-dimensional and two-dimensional nanostructures can be formed by direct laser treatment with different scan speed and intensity. These structures exhibit not only dispersing, but also anisotropic properties. The obtained results open perspectives for easier mass production of polarization splitters and filters, planar optics, and also for security labeling.

This publisher’s note reports a correction to Eq. (1) of Optica 8, 577–585 (2021)OPTIC 82334-2536 10.1364/OPTICA.420074 .