Lithography-free, manganese-based ultrabroadband absorption through annealing-based deformation of thin layers into metal-air composites.

Fabrication, characterization, and analysis of an ultrabroadband lithography-free absorber is presented. An over 94% average absorption is experimentally achieved in the wavelength range of 450-1400 nm. This ultrabroadband absorption is obtained by a simple annealed trilayer metal-insulator-metal (MIM) configuration.

Temperature-mediated invocation of the vacuum state for switchable ultrawide-angle and broadband deflection.

Temperature-mediated appearance and disappearance of a deflection grating in a diffracting structure is possible by employing InSb as the grating material. InSb transits from the dielectric state to the plasmonic state in the terahertz regime as the temperature increases, this transition being reversible. An intermediate state is the vacuum state in which the real part of the relative permittivity of InSb equals unity while the imaginary part is much smaller.

Toward Electrically Tunable, Lithography-Free, Ultra-Thin Color Filters Covering the Whole Visible Spectrum.

The possibility of real-time tuning of optical devices has attracted a lot of interest over the last decade. At the same time, coming up with simple lithography-free structures has always been a challenge in the design of large-area compatible devices. In this work, we present the concept and the sample design of an electrically tunable, lithography-free, ultra-thin transmission-mode color filter, the spectrum of which continuously covers the whole visible region.

Large-Area, Cost-Effective, Ultra-Broadband Perfect Absorber Utilizing Manganese in Metal-Insulator-Metal Structure.

Achieving broadband absorption has been a topic of intensive research over the last decade. However, the costly and time consuming stage of lithography has always been a barrier for the large-area and mass production of absorbers. In this work, we designed, fabricated, and characterized a lithography-free, large-area compatible, omni-directional, ultra-broadband absorber that consists of the simplest geometrical configuration for absorbers: Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM).