Structural coloring is production of color by surfaces that have microstructure fine enough to interfere with visible light; this phenomenon provides a novel paradigm for color printing. Plasmonic color is an emergent property of the interaction between light and metallic surfaces. This phenomenon can surpass the diffraction limit and achieve near unlimited lifetime. We categorize plasmonic color filters according to their designs (hole, rod, metal–insulator–metal, grating), and also describe structures supported by Mie resonance. We discuss the principles, and the merits and demerits of each color filter. We also discuss a new concept of color filters with tunability and reconfigurability, which enable printing of structural color to yield dynamic coloring at will. Approaches for dynamic coloring are classified as liquid crystal, chemical transition and mechanical deformation. At the end of review, we highlight a scale-up of fabrication methods, including nanoimprinting, self-assembly and laser-induced process that may enable real-world application of structural coloring.

Structural coloration using metasurfaces has been steadily researched to overcome the limitations of conventional color printing using pigments by improving the resolution, lowering the toxicity, and increasing the durability. Many metasurfaces have been demonstrated for dynamic structural coloration to convert images at the visible spectrum. However, the previous works cannot reach near‐zero scattering when colors are turned‐off, preventing it from being cryptographic applications. Herein, we propose a completely on/off switchable structural coloration with polarization‐sensitive metasurfaces, enabling full‐colored images to be displayed and hidden through the control of the polarization of incident light. It is confirmed that the nanostructure exhibits the polarization‐dependent magnetic field distributions, and near‐zero scattering is realized when the polarization of incident light is perpendicular to the long axis of the nanofins. Also, the metasurfaces are made up of triple‐nanofin structures whose lengths affect locations of resonance peaks, resulting in full‐color spectrum coverages. With such advantages, a QR code image, a two‐color object image, and an overlapped dual‐portrait image are obtained with the metasurfaces. Such demonstrations will provide potential applications in the fields of high‐security information encryption, security tag, multichannel imaging, and dynamic displays.

Generating colors by employing metallic nanostructures has attracted intensive scientific attention recently, because one can easily realize higher spatial resolution and highly robust colors compared to conventional pigment. However, since the scattering spectra and thereby the resultant colors are determined by the nanostructure geometries, only one fixed color can be produced by one design and a whole new sample is required to generate a different color. In this paper, we demonstrate active metasurface, which shows a range of colors dependent on incident polarization by selectively exciting three different plasmonic nanorods. The metasurface, which does not include any tunable materials or external stimuli, will be beneficial in real-life applications especially in the display applications.