An article including a thin film interference pigment; and a coating including a selectively absorbing nanoparticle is disclosed. The article can exhibit increased chromaticity as compared to the thin film interference pigment alone. Methods of making the article are also disclosed.

A composition including a first color shifting pigment having a first color shift that extends from a starting color at normal through a plurality of colors as a viewing angle is increased to a final color, wherein the first color shift rotates counterclockwise relative to, and about, an origin of the L*a*b* color space; and a color filter that transmits a portion of the first color shift of the first color shifting pigment and absorbs a remainder of the first color shift of the first color shifting pigment; wherein the composition has a second color shift different from the first color shift; and wherein the second color shift has a first portion that rotates counterclockwise relative to the origin and a second portion that rotates clockwise relative to the origin is disclosed. A security device including the composition is included. A method of making the composition and a method of authenticating the security device are also disclosed.

The present invention provides a glitter pigment suitable for imparting high brightness to reflected light toward a regular reflection direction and reducing unnaturalness caused by an observation angle-dependent variation in reflected light. The glitter pigment according to the present invention includes: a flaky substrate; an optical interference film formed on a surface of the flaky substrate; and fine light scattering particles attached to the optical interference film, wherein reflected light is represented by an L*(15) value of more than 100, a L*(hs) value of less than 30, and a h(hs) value of less than 40 in an L*C*h color system. The L*(15) value is an L* value of the reflected light toward a 15 direction based on an angular representation in which, when an illuminant is disposed so that an incident angle is 45, an angle at which light is regularly reflected is defined as 0 and a light incident direction is defined as positive. The L*(hs) value is a difference in L* between a highlight and shade, and the h(hs) value is a difference in h between a highlight and shade. The h value expressed in angle is an angular difference. The highlight is an average of values measured at 15 and 25, and the shade is an average of values measured at 75 and 110.

A method for forming a multilayer thin film having a crystalline metal oxide layer, the method including: encapsulating at least one encapsulated layer of the multilayer thin film in a wet chemical composition by wet chemical methods; and crystallizing the wet chemical composition by microwave hydrothermal treatment to form a crystalline metal oxide layer encapsulating the at least one encapsulated layer of the multilayer thin film.

A method of forming a thin film device includes coating a web with a multi-layer thin film; and applying a mechanical force to release the multi-layer thin film from the web. Additional methods of forming a thin film device are disclosed.

An asymmetric pigment including a first Fabry-Perot structure; and a second Fabry-Perot structure; wherein the first Fabry-Perot structure and the second Fabry-Perot structure have a similar hue angle within +/45 degrees is disclosed. Other asymmetric pigments are also disclosed as well as methods of making the disclosed pigments.

Provided is an infrared-reflective coating composition that includes: a scale-like infrared-reflective pigment; and a resin component, wherein the pigment includes a layered body that has dielectric layers and a metal thin film layer layered in an alternate fashion with the dielectric layer on the outermost layer; the dielectric layer is formed from one or more materials such as titanium dioxide; the metal thin film layer is formed from a silver compound; a film thickness of the metal thin film layer is 5 to 15 nm; a film thickness of the dielectric layer is ((N)/(4r))20 nm (N=1, 2 or 3) wherein wavelength of incident light is 250 to 980 nm, and r is a refractive index of the dielectric layer; and a proportion of the infrared-reflective pigment having a particle diameter of 1 m or smaller is 10% by volume or smaller.

The present invention provides an interference pigment that develops interference colors even on light-colored bases. An interference pigment 1 of the present invention includes: a flaky inorganic substrate 10; a transparent metal layer 20 that coats the inorganic substrate 10; and a metal oxide layer 30 that coats the metal layer 20.

An article including at least one first metallic layer, at least one dielectric layer, and at least one second metallic layer is disclosed. The at least one dielectric layer can include at least one of (i) a photo-initiator, (ii) an oxygen inhibition mitigation composition, (iii) a leveling agent, and (iv) a defoamer. The article can be in the form of a foil or pigment flake, and can also include a magnet containing layer.

An article including a reflector having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface; a first selective light modulator layer external to the first surface of the reflector; a second selective light modulator layer external to the second surface of the reflector; a first absorber layer external to the first selective light modulator layer; and a second absorber layer external to the second selective light modulator layer; wherein each of the first and second selective light modulator layers include a host material is disclosed herein. Methods of making the article are also disclosed.