Light-driven dynamic surface wrinkles for adaptive visible camouflage

Significance Camouflage has broad applications in nature, engineering, and the military. This work demonstrated a feasible strategy for adaptive visible camouflage based on light-driven dynamic surface wrinkles. The multiwavelength light–driven dynamic surface wrinkles based on photothermal effect–induced thermal expansion of the substrate could tune the light scattering and the visibility of the film interference color. Consequently, the color captured by the observer could switch between the exposure state that is distinguished from the background and the camouflage state that is similar to the surroundings, demonstrating the adaptive camouflage. This system is simple to configure, easy to operate, versatile, and exhibits in situ dynamic characteristics without any external sensors and extra stimuli, which provided an alternative strategy for adaptive camouflage.