Journal
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
Volume 94, Issue 17, Pages -Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1063/1.3126062
Keywords
absorption coefficients; dielectric thin films; nanostructured materials; niobium compounds; permittivity; photodetectors
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Funding
- Dutch Association for Scientific Research (NWO)
- Foundation for Fundamental Research of Matter (FOM)
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We demonstrate that films of very lossy metal or dielectric, with a thickness of only a few nanometers, can absorb almost all incident radiation when illuminated from the substrate side at the critical angle for total internal reflection. The absorption for s-polarized light approaches 100%, while the absorption for p-polarized light vanishes. We demonstrate this effect by measuring the absorption as a function of the angle of incidence at a wavelength of 775 nm in a 4.5 nm thick NbN film with a dielectric constant epsilon(NbN)=-8.2+31.4i. The measured absorption in this film reaches a maximum of 94%. We discuss the design of a near-unity efficiency single-photon detector for s-polarized light that has a broadband absorption coefficient of >90% for wavelengths from 700 to 1600 nm.
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