Design of Polarization-Independent and Wide-Angle Broadband Absorbers for Highly Efficient Reflective Structural Color Filters

Abstract

We propose a design of angle-insensitive and polarization-independent reflective color filters with high efficiency (>80%) based on broad resonance in a Fabry-Perot cavity where asymmetric metal-dielectric-metal planar structures are employed. Broadband absorption properties allow the resonance in the visible range to remain nearly constant over a broad range of incident angles of up to 40 degrees for both s- and p-polarizations. Effects of the angles of incidence and polarization state of incident light on the purity of the resulting colors are examined on the CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram. In addition, higher-order resonances of the proposed color filters and their electric field distributions are investigated for improved color purity. Lastly, the spectral properties of the proposed structures with different metallic layers are studied. The simple strategy described in this work could be adopted in a variety of research areas, such as color decoration devices, microscopy, and colorimetric sensors.