Yueguang Zhang

Bismuth telluride nanotubes and the effects on the thermoelectric properties of nanotube-containing nanocomposites

Nanotubes of quasilayered bismuth telluride compound were prepared by hydrothermal synthesis. Nanotubes have diameters smaller than 100nm and spiral tube-walls. The low-dimensional morphology and hollow structure enable bismuth telluride nanotubes to be a potential thermoelectric material with a high figure of merit due to the efficient phonon blocking effect. The experimental results show that the addition of nanotubes leads to a remarkable decrease in the thermal conductivity with the electrical conductivity much less affected and thus to an increase in the figure of merit of the Bi2Te3-based material.

Compact Multilayer Film Structure for Angle Insensitive Color Filtering

Here we report a compact multilayer film structure for angle robust color filtering, which is verified by theoretical calculations and experiment results. The introduction of the amorphous silicon in the proposed unsymmetrical resonant cavity greatly reduces the angular sensitivity of the filters, which is confirmed by the analysis of the phase shift within the structure. The temperature of the substrate during the deposition is expressly investigated to obtain the best optical performance with high peak reflectance and good angle insensitive color filtering by compromising the refractive index of dielectric layer and the surface roughness of the multilayer film. And the outlayer of the structure, worked as the anti-reflection layer, have an enormous impact on the filtering performance. This method, described in this paper, can have enormous potential for diverse applications in display, colorful decoration, anti-counterfeiting and so forth.

Design and simulation of omnidirectional reflective color filters based on metal-dielectric-metal structure

We propose omnidirectional reflective color filters based on metal-dielectric-metal subwavelength grating structure. By particle swarm optimization, the structural parameters of three color filters (yellow, magenta, cyan) are obtained. The optimized filters can present the same perceived specular color at unpolarized illumination for a broad range of incident angles. The reflectance curves at different incident angles keep almost invariable and the color difference is less than 6 in CIEDE2000 formula up to 45°. Angle-insensitive properties including the incident angular tolerance, azimuthal angular tolerance and the polarization effect are investigated thoroughly to construct a real omnidirectional color filter. Through the analysis of the magnetic field, the physical origin is verified that the total absorption band at specific wavelength results from the localized surface plasmon resonance responsible for the angle insensitive spectral filtering.

Design of reflective color filters with high angular tolerance by particle swarm optimization method.

We propose three color filters (red, green, blue) based on a two-dimensional (2D) grating, which maintain the same perceived specular colors for a broad range of incident angles with the average polarization. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) method is employed to design these filters for the first time to our knowledge. Two merit functions involving the reflectance curves and color difference in CIEDE2000 formula are respectively constructed to adjust the structural parameters during the optimization procedure. Three primary color filters located at 637nm, 530nm and 446nm with high saturation are obtained with the peak reflectance of 89%, 83%, 66%. The reflectance curves at different incident angles are coincident and the color difference is less than 8 for the incident angle up to 45°. The electric field distribution of the structure is finally studied to analyze the optical property.

Angle Insensitive Color Filters in Transmission Covering the Visible Region

Angle insensitive color filter based on Metal-SiOx-Metal structure is proposed in this paper, which can keep the same perceived transmitted color when the incidence angle changes from 0° to 60°, especially for p-polarization light. Various silicon oxide films deposited by reaction magnetron sputtering with a tunable refractive index from 1.97 to 3.84 is introduced to meet the strict angle insensitive resonance conditions. The angle resolved spectral filtering for both p-polarization light and s-polarization light are quite well, which can be attributed to the different physical origins for the high angular tolerance for two polarizations. Finally, the effect of SiOx absorption and Ag thickness on the peak transmittance are analyzed.

Color-tuning method by filling porous alumina membrane using atomic layer deposition based on metal–dielectric–metal structure

A novel and convenient color-tuning method by filling the porous alumina membrane (PAM) based on metal-dielectric-metal structure is proposed. The pore sizes of PAM as well as the thickness of TiO2 films, deposited by atomic layer deposition, causes various reflection colors due to multilayer interference effects. Overlapping films on top and within the PAM structure can be observed with a scanning electron microscope and will be used to show the change of the effective refractive index of the PAM composite layer. The color-tuning method resulting in changing the dynamics of the PAM layer can be widely applied in fields such as micro-optics, microstructures, nanomaterials, and micro/nanotechnology.

Omnidirectional narrow bandpass filter based on metal-dielectric thin films.

We show that a metal-dielectric Fabry-Perot (FP) structure can exhibit an omnidirectional transmission for p-polarized light, which means a passband is independent of the incidence angle of light. The omnidirectional passband occurs when the sum of the reflection phase shift at the metal-spacer interface and the propagation shift in the spacer region is almost 2pi for every incidence angle. We numerically and experimentally demonstrate such an omnidirectional narrow bandpass filter in an air/Ag/ZnS/Ag/glass structure. Moreover, we introduce an antireflection coating on both sides of the metal-dielectric FP structure. The transmittance will increase obviously, while the omnidirectional property remains the same.

Design and fabrication of a novel reflection filter.

Reflection filters are useful in optical communication, display, and other systems. A novel reflection filter is designed and fabricated. Analytical design formulas have been put forward and show good agreement with the measured maximum reflectance as well as with the bandwidth at the central wavelength. The effective admittance and distribution of the electrical field intensity are also calculated to analyze the properties of the filter. This novel filter with high peak reflectance, narrow bandwidth, and deep cutoff, is simple to design, easy to fabricate and convenient to integrate, compared with the conventional dielectric multilayer reflection filters.

Wavelength-division multiplexed thin-film filters used in tilted incident angles of light

The properties of wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) narrowband filters used in tilted collimated light are described. The wavelength shift for s polarization in a low-index-spacer filter is larger than that for p polarization when the filter is tilted, but it is smaller in a high-index-spacer filter. Therefore the passbands of the tilted filter can be centered at the same wavelength for two polarization modes by use of high- and low-index materials, as appropriate, as spacers or by selection of a moderate-index material instead of a spacer. With such spacers, WDM filters used for incident angles of 20 degrees or even greater are constructed. Experimental results agree with the computed ones.

Design of reflective color filters with high angular tolerance by particle swarm optimization method

Three color filters (red, green, blue) based on a two-dimensional (2D) grating with high angular tolerance are designed by Particle swarm optimization (PSO) method via two merit functions.