Optically tunable plasmonic color filters

We fabricated sub-wavelength patterned gold plasmonic nanostructures on a quartz substrate through the focused ion beam (FIB) technique. The perforated gold film demonstrated optical transmission peaks in the visible range, which therefore can be used as a plasmonic color filter. Furthermore, by integrating a layer of photoresponsive liquid crystals (LCs) with the gold nanostructure to form a hybrid system, we observed a red-shift of transmission peak wavelength. More importantly, the peak intensity can be further enhanced more than 10% in transmittance due to the refractive index match of the media on both sides of it. By optically pumping the hybrid system using a UV light, nematic-isotropic phase transition of the LCs was achieved, thus changing the effective refractive index experienced by the impinging light. Due to the refractive index change, the transmission peak intensity was modulated accordingly. As a result, an optically tunable plasmonic color filter was achieved. This kind of color filters could be potentially applied to many applications, such as complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, liquid crystal display devices, light emitting diodes, etc.