Spectrally Tunable Infrared Optical Filters Based on Nano-Structured Materials

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to develop a technology to enable the fabrication of electronically tunable optical filter, such as beam splitter, in infrared spectrum for incoherent light. Electronically tunable Optical filters, such as beam splitters, are desired in infrared imaging systems, such as night vision thermal imaging system. Such filters can significantly reduce the complexity of the optics in imaging system and help to enable a lightweight, small volume and automated imaging system with significant improved capability. The proposed effort will use low-refractive-index nano-rod thin film materials for tunable optical filter fabrication. The nano scale feature size of the nano-rod has negligible scattering effect and can enable a nano-rod layer a viable optical thin film in multilayer structure. The advantage of the proposed effect is that such nano-rod thin films can enable variety of sophisticated spectrally-tunable optical filters with broad spectrally-tunable range. The intellectual merit mainly lies in technical challenges for nano-structured material fabrication, and the optical filter design by combining the optical property and the nano-structure of the low-refractive-index materials.