A study of structural effect on the spectral property of metallic cross-hole array in mid-infrared wavelengths

Based on the earlier success in developing multichannel detection in long (8–14 μm) infrared wavelengths, this paper reports our recent progress for spectral filters in the mid-infrared band of 4–10 μm by introducing a new design with metallic cross annular hole array. The effects of structural dimensions on filtering performance were investigated by numerical simulations with the finite-difference time-domain method and experimentally verified by optical characterizations of fabricated filters made by electron beam lithography. The transmission peaks were optimized with the maximum transmittance of 62%. The existing problem of low spectral resolution of transmittances was tackled by using a thick Au film for the filter, which remains a big challenge for conventional electron beam lithography. By modeling ice lithography in amorphous solid water for constructing the filter, it was found that ice lithography certainly possesses significant advantage in replicating nanoscale features with high aspect ratio. The proposed ice lithography in this work provides an effective solution for the nanofabrication of high performance filters with dense elements in an array in the mid-infrared wavelengths.