Aluminum Plasmonics Based Highly Transmissive Polarization-Independent Subtractive Color Filters Exploiting a Nanopatch Array

• Published in: Nano letters 2014-11, Vol.14 (11), p.6672-6678
• Main Authors: Shrestha, Vivek R, Lee, Sang-Shin, Kim, Eun-Soo, Choi, Duk-Yong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum; Applied sciences; Arrays; Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations); Color; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Digital imaging; Electron beam lithography; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Fullerenes and related materials; Materials science; Methods of nanofabrication; Molecular electronics, nanoelectronics; Nanolithography; Nanostructure; Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation; Physics; Plasmonics; Propagation; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Surface and interface electron states; Visible and ultraviolet spectra
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl503353z

Nanophotonic devices enabled by aluminum plasmonics are saliently advantageous in terms of their low cost, outstanding sustainability, and affordable volume production. We report, for the first time, aluminum plasmonics based highly transmissive polarization-independent subtractive color filters, which are fabricated just with single step electron-beam lithography. The filters feature selective suppression in the transmission spectra, which is realized by combining the propagating and nonpropagating surface plasmons mediated by an array of opaque and physically thin aluminum nanopatches. A broad palette of bright, high-contrast subtractive colors is successfully demonstrated by simply varying the pitches of the nanopatches. These subtractive color filters have twice the photon throughput of additive counterparts, ultimately providing elevated optical transmission and thus stronger color signals. Moreover, the filters are demonstrated to conspicuously feature a dual-mode operation, both transmissive and reflective, in conjunction with a capability to exhibit micron-scale colors in arbitrary shapes. They are anticipated to be diversely applied to digital display, digital imaging, color printing, and sensing.