Narrow band filters in both transmission and reflection with metal/dielectric thin films

Abstract We present a novel narrow band filter operating in both transmission and reflection for the first time to our knowledge. This proposed structure consists of one unsymmetrical dielectric Fabry–Perot cavity and an ultrathin metal film with n  ≈  k . Theoretical analysis shows that both the reflectance and transmittance at the central wavelength are maximums. Due to the high absorption induced by the metal, a good rejection level can be obtained for a wide spectral range. In addition, the changes of peak value ratio R max / T max is also investigated by adjusting the amount of dielectric stacks. We finally demonstrate the experimental results to verify these designs.