Visible-to-near-infrared asymmetric transmission through a cross grating

Abstract

Broadband asymmetric transmission (BAT) structures are in high demand for optical devices, computing, and thermal management. While achieving asymmetric transmission in a broad waveband remains challenging. In this work, we propose a simple cross grating made of SiO2 and silver (Ag) and demonstrate its ability to asymmetrically transmit visible-to-near-infrared radiation. Results indicate that the proposed grating achieves a BAT performance in the range of 0.4 – 1.5 μm, with a max forward transmissivity of 0.95 which is larger than the backward one which is always smaller than 0.45. The proposed structure in this work paves a high-performance candidate for achieving BAT in the visible-to-near-infrared wavelength ranges and, thus, has promising applications in thermal management devices such as thermophotovoltaic systems and smart windows.