Optically bifacial thin-film wire-grid polarizers with nano-patterns of a graded metal-dielectric composite layer.

We report on the concept of a thin film wire-grid polarizer (WGP) with optically dual characteristics by introducing a nano-patterned graded metal-dielectric composite-material layer. The Ti-SiO(2) composite layer with a depth profile of a gradually-varied composition ratio shows an absorptive feature due to the elimination of an optical interface between a metal and a glass substrate, while the metal side of the WGP gives a reflective character. The unprecedented optically-bifacial thin-film WGP with the 144 nm-period straight-line patterns of a 100 nm-thick Ti-SiO(2) composite layer and a 185 nm-thick Al layer shows the exceptionally low reflectance below 15 % from the absorptive side and the high polarization extinction ratio (PER) of over 500 at 550 nm, which is acceptable for use as various display applications such as AMOLEDs and LCDs.