Chromatic plasmonic polarizers for active visible color filtering and polarimetry

Color filters are widely used in color displays, optical measurement devices, and imaging devices. Conventional color filters have usually only one fixed output color. However developing active color filters with controllable color output can lead to more compact and sophisticated color filter-based devices and applications. Recent progress in nanotechnology and new knowledge of the interaction of light with metal nanostructures allow us to capture and control light better than ever. Here we use it to fabricate active color filters, based on arrays of metallic optical nanoantennas that are tailored to interact with light at visible frequencies via excitation of localized surface plasmons. This interaction maps the polarization state of incident white light to visible color. Similarly, it converts unpolarized white light to chromatically polarized light. We experimentally demonstrate a wide range of applications including active color pixels, chromatically switchable and invisible tags, and polarization imaging based on these engineered colored metasurfaces.