Narrow bandwidth and highly polarized ratio infrared thermal emitter

Polarized infrared thermal emitters consisting of a waveguide thermal emitter combined with silver grating structure were studied. For a device containing a perforated silver film under the grating, polarized infrared light was emitted only when the wavelength satisfied the standing wave condition, therefore the broad bandwidth SiO2 phonon vibration modes were suppressed in the thermal radiation spectrum. The polarized ratio with different grating thickness was investigated and the highly polarized ratio up to 0.875 was achieved. This study demonstrated that the integrated structure can be used as a narrow bandwidth and highly polarized ratio infrared light source. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.