Spatial and Frequency Selective Plasmonic Metasurface for Long Wavelength Infrared Spectral Region

Abstract The development of novel approaches that control absorption and emission operating in the long wavelength infrared (LWIR) spectral region is of fundamental importance for many applications, such as remote temperature sensing, thermal imaging, radiation cooling, environmental monitoring, and night vision. A high performance plasmonic metasurface–based absorber for the LWIR spectral region is presented. In the design, a pyroelectric thin film, poly(vinylidene fluoride‐trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF‐TrFE)) copolymer, is introduced as spacer, that offers the device not only multiple selective high absorption bands but also promising potential for application in optoelectronics. The angle‐resolved optical responses show that the absorption effect is sensitive to the incident angles and can be controlled by the periodicity, indicating that the design can function as optical devices with directional and frequency‐selective absorption/emission characteristics. By employing near‐field optical microscopy, both the near‐field amplitude and phase optical responses of the absorber are investigated at resonant wavelength, thereby providing direct experimental evidence to verify the nature of the absorption effect. To further demonstrate the versatility of the design, a particular metasurface patterned by the building blocks of the absorber is fabricated. 2D hyperspectral images show that such a patterned structure exhibits both frequency and spatially selective absorption.