Rapid fabrication of structural color arrays via vibration-assisted fly-cutting for controllable optical surfaces

Structural color, arising from the light diffraction and interference on micro- and nano-scale periodic structural surfaces, is widely used in decoration, anti-counterfeiting and information storage. However, fabricating such optical structures with large-area and high-fidelity typically relies on costly and time-consuming techniques. In this study, a vibration-assisted fly-cutting machining method was proposed to efficiently prepare micro-nanostructure arrays for showing a vivid and uniform structural color pattern on the metal surface. Firstly, a vibration-assisted fly-cutting machining system that combines a two-dimensional high-frequency vibration platform and a fly-cutting system was developed. Quantitative correlations, including linear fitting between groove pitch and spectral signatures, and functional relationships between groove height and structural colors were established and subsequently embedded within the tool path planning. Secondly, under sinusoidal excitation, the influence of machining parameters (feed rate, excitation voltage, vibration trajectory, and phase difference) on structural color and microstructure was investigated. By systematically optimizing machining parameters, high-fidelity structural color patterns exhibiting uniform primary chromaticity (blue, green, and red) were reproducibly generated with high efficiency. Finally, to validate the controllability and efficiency of the vibration-assisted fly-cutting machining system, a suite of complex structural color patterns was rationally designed and reproducibly fabricated on the basis of the parametric correlations previously elucidated. The results obtained verified that this method enables the efficient fabrication of high-quality microstructures for structural color modulation, providing a cost-effective strategy for the scalable manufacturing of functional optical surfaces.