A process that leverages capillary interactions between oligomers in an elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane substrate and deposited Ga enables the formation of Ga nanodroplets with nanoscale gaps in a single step. Gap-plasmon resonances excited within the nanogaps give rise to structural colours that can be tuned by changing the oligomer content in the substrate or by mechanical stretching.
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This is a summary of: Sahu, R. R. et al. Single-step fabrication of liquid gallium nanoparticles via capillary interaction for dynamic structural colours. Nat. Nanotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01625-1 (2024).
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Fabrication of mechanochromic gallium nanostructures by capillary interactions. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01630-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01630-4