Manipulating disordered plasmonic systems by external cavity with transition from broadband absorption to reconfigurable reflection

Abstract

Disordered biostructures are ubiquitous in nature, usually generating white or black colours due to their broadband optical response and robustness to perturbations. Through judicious design, disordered nanostructures have been realised in artificial systems, with unique properties for light localisation, photon transportation and energy harvesting. On the other hand, the tunability of disordered systems with a broadband response has been scarcely explored. Here, we achieve the controlled manipulation of disordered plasmonic systems, realising the transition from broadband absorption to tunable reflection through deterministic control of the coupling to an external cavity. Starting from a generalised model, we realise disordered systems composed of plasmonic nanoclusters that either operate as a broadband absorber or with a reconfigurable reflection band throughout the visible. Not limited to its significance for the further understanding of the physics of disorder, our disordered plasmonic system provides a novel platform for various practical application such as structural colour patterning.