Polarization-Controlled Broad Color Palette Based on an Ultrathin One-Dimensional Resonant Grating Structure

Abstract

Highly efficient polarization-tuned structural color filters, which are based on a one- dimensional resonant aluminum grating that is integrated with a silicon nitride waveguide, are proposed and demonstrated to feature a broad color palette. For such a metallic grating structure, transmissive color filtering is only feasible for the incident transverse-magnetic (TM) polarization due to its high reflection regarding the transverse-electric (TE) case; however, polarization-tuned customized colors can be efficiently achieved by optimizing the structural parameters like the duty ratio of the metallic grating. For the fabricated color filters, the transmission peaks, which are imputed to the resonance between the incident light and the guided modes that are supported by the dielectric waveguide, provided efficiencies as high as 90% and 70% for the TM and TE polarizations, respectively, as intended. Through the tailoring of the polarization, a group of filters with different grating periods were successfully exploited to produce a broad color palette spanning the entire visible band. Lastly, a nanoscale alphabetic pattern featuring a flexible combination of colorations was practically constructed via an arrangement of horizontal and vertical gratings.