Blazed wire-grid polarizer for plasmon-enhanced polarization extinction: design and analysis.

We explore plasmon-enhanced wire-gird polarizers (WGPs) to achieve improved polarimetric performance with more relaxed fabrication parameters compared to conventional WGP. A WGP designed with a blazed wire-grid profile was considered for plasmonic enhancement. The results show that a blazed WGP can achieve extremely high polarimetric extinction at a longer wire-grid period (Λ) compared to conventional WGP structure. Under the optimum geometrical parameters, a blazed WGP may attain an extinction ratio of over 40 dB at Λ = 800 nm, which may allow photolithography for fabrication. In contrast, conventional WGPs obtained comparable performance at Λ = 200 nm, requiring more difficult lithographic techniques. The study can therefore be of significant importance for WGPs to be more widely available for diverse applications.