Wide-gamut plasmonic color filters using a complementary design method

Abstract

Plasmonic color filters (PCFs) can acquire primary colors from non-polarized incident light through a two-dimensional arrangement of subwavelength holes. However, owing to the geometry of the 2D array, unintended secondary transmitted peaks derived from the higher-order modes of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) lead to color cross-talk with the primary peaks. Herein, we propose a complementary design method for generating high-purity red, green, and blue (R/G/B) by combining the G/B filters of hole-arrays with the R filters of dot-arrays. Metallic dot-array filters, wherein the wavelength band under 575 nm was effectively blocked by the induction of peak broadening, operated as optical high-pass filters exhibiting pure red, and consequently widen the color gamut of PCFs by 30% without loss of luminance and color tunability. This harmonious combination promises to yield competitiveness for a next-generation color filter by enhancing the color reproducibility of plasmonic nanostructures.