A New Means of Printing High Resolution Color Images

A colored nanoscale rendition of a standard test image used in image processing experiments – (a) Before the addition of metal in the nanostructures. (b) After addition of the metal layers to the nanostructures and in specific patterns. (c) Refined color detail. Electron micrograph (bottom right) of nanostructures that make up the eye

Last week a remarkable new way to create print was announced.  A nanotechnology for creating images with a resolution of up to 100,000 dpi (dots per inch).  Traditional printing technologies are limited to about 10,000 dpi.

The illustration above is measured in micrometers (1 x 10^-6 meter or one millionth of a meter). 

The new technology is a reflective lithographic-type process.

(The full article is available at Nature Nanotechnology which requires a subscription.)

The concept was developed in Singapore at the A*STAR’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE).  The idea came from stained glass which is given color by adding metal to the molten glass.  The metal adds nanoparticles to the glass which scatter the light to give it color.  This new technology creates a metallic "surface" on the paper using nano-disks.  The disks are encoded for certain colors by size and distance apart.

From phys.org:

"The resolution of printed colour images very much depends on the size and spacing between individual ‘nanodots’ of colour", explained Dr Karthik Kumar, one of the key researchers involved. "The closer the dots are together and because of their small size, the higher the resolution of the image. With the ability to accurately position these extremely small colour dots, we were able to demonstrate the highest theoretical print colour resolution of 100,000 dpi."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-08-full-colour-images-dpi-resolution.html#jCp

"The resolution of printed colour images very much depends on the size and spacing between individual ‘nanodots’ of colour", explained Dr Karthik Kumar, one of the key researchers involved. "The closer the dots are together and because of their small size, the higher the resolution of the image. With the ability to accurately position these extremely small colour dots, we were able to demonstrate the highest theoretical print colour resolution of 100,000 dpi."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-08-full-colour-images-dpi-resolution.html#jCp

"The resolution of printed colour images very much depends on the size and spacing between individual ‘nanodots’ of colour", explained Dr Karthik Kumar, one of the key researchers involved. "The closer the dots are together and because of their small size, the higher the resolution of the image. With the ability to accurately position these extremely small colour dots, we were able to demonstrate the highest theoretical print colour resolution of 100,000 dpi."

“Instead of using different dyes for different colours, we encoded colour information into the size and position of tiny metal disks. These disks then interacted with light through the phenomenon of plasmon resonances,” said Dr Joel Yang, the project leader of the research. “The team built a database of colour that corresponded to a specific nanostructure pattern, size and spacing. These nanostructures were then positioned accordingly. Similar to a child’s ‘colouring-by-numbers’ image, the sizes and positions of these nanostructures defined the ‘numbers’. But instead of sequentially colouring each area with a different ink, an ultrathin and uniform metal film was deposited across the entire image causing the ‘encoded’ colours to appear all at once, almost like magic!” added Dr Joel Yang.

From AsianScientist:

“The resolution of printed color images very much depends on the size and spacing between individual ‘nanodots’ of color,” said lead author Dr. Karthik Kumar.

“The closer the dots are together and because of their small size, the higher the resolution of the image. With the ability to accurately position these extremely small color dots, we were able to demonstrate the highest theoretical print color resolution of 100,000 dpi,” he added.