Reflective coloration from structural plasmonic to disordered polarizonic

The generation of pigment-free colors by nanostructures and subwavelength patterns has evolved in the last decade and outperformed the conventional paints in terms of durability, recyclability, and environmental friendliness. The recent progress in the field of structural coloration, particularly reflective coloration, offering a full-color gamut, has realized high-resolution printing, not attainable by the pigment paints. Herein, an overview of the various systems able to offer reflective coloration for a variety of optical applications with static and dynamic responses is presented. Specifically, an emphasis is given to recent works of the article's authors on the cooperative action of the disordered particles and dipoles that can generate specular reflective colors. In addition, further developments of reflective color nanosystems are discussed. In the first section, an overview of the recent progress in the field of plasmonic reflective structural coloration is provided. The second part of the article deals with the authors’ latest findings with respect to polarizonic color generation and its implementation in various areas ranging from environmental detection and biosensing to colored solar perfect absorbers. The report is wrapped up with an outlook and summary.