Ultrathin Submicrometer Scale Multicolor Detector of Visible Light Based on Metamaterial

Abstract

In this study, we propose a multi-color detector using a simple plasmonic metamaterial structure consisting of a silver and a indium phosphide. The color detector is composed of a metal strip with a periodicity in the x-axis direction on a layer of the dielectric material located on a metal substrate. This color detector can control the spectrum absorbed in the dielectric material layer by changing the thickness of the dielectric material layer or the width of the metal strip. The triangle formed by the three primary colors, namely, red, green, and blue, which are representatively detected by optimizing the color detector using only silver and indium phosphide, covers 44% of the standard Red Green Blue (sRGB) region. Furthermore, the area of the triangle obtained by further optimization, such as changing the material to gold or gallium phosphide or changing the period of the metal stirp, can aid in the detection of a larger number of colors covering 108% of the sRGB area.