Hyper-Selective Plasmonic Color Filters

The subwavelength mode volumes of plasmonic filters are well matched to the small size of state-of-the-art active pixels in CMOS image sensor arrays used in portable electronic devices. Typical plasmonic filters exhibit broad (> 100 nm) transmission bandwidths suitable for RBG or CMYK color filtering. Dramatically reducing the peak width of filter transmission spectra would allow for the realization of CMOS image sensors with multi- and hyperspectral imaging capabilities. We find that the design of 5 layer metal-insulator-metal-insulator-metal structures gives rise to multi-mode interference phenomena that suppress spurious transmission features and give rise to single transmission bands as narrow as 17 nm. The transmission peaks of these multilayer slot-mode plasmonic filters (MSPFs) can be systematically varied throughout the visible and near infrared spectrum, leading to a filter that is CMOS integrable, since the same basic MSPF structure can operate over a large range of wavelengths. We find that MSPF filter designs that can achieve a bandwidth less than 30 nm across the visible and demonstrate experimental prototypes with a FWHM of 70 nm, and we describe how experimental structure can be made to approach the limits suggested by the model.