METHOD OF CREATING A SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE
A method of creating a security product includes providing a substrate, depositing a discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material on the substrate, and laser-annealing the discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material to generate nanoparticles exhibiting a surface plasmon resonance effect.
1 . A method of creating a security product, the method comprising:
providing a substrate;
depositing a discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material on the substrate; and
laser-annealing the discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material to generate nanoparticles exhibiting a surface plasmon resonance effect.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is composed of a polymer material.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate has a thickness within a range of about 25 μm to about 100 μm.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material includes at least one of silver, gold, copper, and aluminum.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material has a thickness of less than about 100 nm.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material is deposited using vacuum deposition.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material is laser-annealed using an Excimer or solid-state laser.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
depositing an encapsulation layer onto the laser-annealed discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the encapsulation layer is composed of a polymer material and provides a protective hard-coat for the laser-annealed discontinuous layer of electrically conducting material.
10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
depositing at least one additional layer on the substrate.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the at least one additional layer includes a first dielectric layer having a first refractive index and a second dielectric layer having a second refractive index, wherein the first refractive index and the second refractive index are different.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein laser-annealing the electrically conducting material to generate nanoparticles exhibiting a surface plasmon resonance effect includes laser-annealing the electrically conducting material such that at least some of the nanoparticles become at least partially submerged within the substrate.
13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein laser-annealing the electrically conducting material to generate nanoparticles exhibiting a surface plasmon resonance effect includes laser-annealing the electrically conducting material such that at least some of the nanoparticles become fully submerged within the substrate.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the security product exhibits a plasmonic response in infra-red or ultra-violet spectrum.
15 . A security product created by the method of claim 1 .