Polarization sensitive silicon photodiodes using nanostructured metallic grids

In this paper, we present the design, fabrication, and characterization of wire grid polarizers. These polarizers show high extinction ratios and high transmission with structure dimensions that are compatible with current complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor CMOS technology. To design these wire grids, we first analyze the transmission properties of single apertures. From the understanding of a single aperture, we apply a modal expansion method to model wire grids. The most promising grids are fabricated on both a glass substrate and CMOS photodiode. An extinction ratio higher than 200 is measured. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.3133862