Plasmonic color tuning

In general, color filter is an optical component to permit the transmission of a specific color in cameras, displays, and microscopes. Each filter has its own unchangeable color because it is made by chemical materials such as dyes and pigments. Therefore, in order to express various colorful images in a display, one pixel should have three sub-pixels of red, green, and blue colors. Here, we suggest new plasmonic structure and method to change the color in a single pixel. It is comprised of a cavity and a metal nanoaperture. The optical cavity generally supports standing waves inside it, and various standing waves having different wavelength can be confined together in one cavity. On the other hand, although light cannot transmit sub-wavelength sized aperture, surface plasmons can propagate through the metal nanoaperture with high intensity due to the extraordinary transmission. If we combine the two structures, we can organize the spatial distribution of amplitudes according to wavelength of various standing waves using the cavity, and we can extract a light with specific wavelength and amplitude using the nanoaperture. Therefore, this cavity-aperture structure can simultaneously tune the color and intensity of the transmitted light through the single nanoaperture. We expect that the cavity-apertures have a potential for dynamic color pixels, micro-imaging system, and multiplexed sensors.