Ultra-narrow-band light dissipation by a stack of lamellar silver and alumina

An ultra-narrow band absorber consisting of continuous silver and alumina films is investigated. Owing to Fabry-Perot resonance and silver's inherent loss, an ultra-narrow spectral range of light can be entirely trapped in the structure. By varying thicknesses of metallic and dielectric films, absorption peak shifts in visible and near-infrared regions. When two such metal-insulator-metal stacks are cascaded, experimental results show that an ultra-narrow absorption bandwidth of 7 nm is achieved, though theoretical results give that of 2 nm. Features of high-efficiency and ultra-narrow band absorption have huge potential in optical filtering, thermal emitter design, etc. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.