This is an enlargement of an image just 50x50 micrometers, printed at the highest definition possible. |
The highest possible resolution images — about 100,000 dots per inch — have been achieved, and in full-color, with a printing method that uses tiny pillars a few tens of nanometers tall. The method, described today in Nature Nanotechnology, could be used to print tiny watermarks or secret messages for security purposes, and to make high-density data-storage discs.
Each pixel in these ultra-resolution images is made up of four nanoscale posts capped with silver and gold nanodisks. By varying the diameters of the structures (which are tens of nanometers) and the spaces between them, it’s possible to control what color of light they reflect. Researchers at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore used this effect, called structural color, to come up with a full palette of colors. As a proof of principle, they printed a 50×50-micrometre version of the ‘Lena’ test image, a richly colored portrait of a woman that is commonly used as a printing standard.
Each pixel in these ultra-resolution images is made up of four nanoscale posts capped with silver and gold nanodisks. By varying the diameters of the structures (which are tens of nanometers) and the spaces between them, it’s possible to control what color of light they reflect. Researchers at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore used this effect, called structural color, to come up with a full palette of colors. As a proof of principle, they printed a 50×50-micrometre version of the ‘Lena’ test image, a richly colored portrait of a woman that is commonly used as a printing standard.