Tunable Nanoelectromechanical RGB Pixels

Tunable leaky-mode resonant silicon-nitride pixels providing red/green/blue spectral lines are analyzed. Critical dimensions, rate of tuning, linewidths, and polarization properties are quantified. ©2007 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (050.1950) Diffraction gratings; (310.2790) guided waves; (120.2440) filters. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) methods are useful for tuning the spectral response of resonant leakymode devices through mechanical micro/nano alteration of the structural parameters. Recently, the characteristics of MEMS-tunable guided-mode resonance structures were presented and their operational principles explained [1]. There, it was shown that such systems are highly tunable with only nanoscale displacements needed for wide-range tuning. These results motivate analogous studies in other spectral regions. Accordingly, in this paper, we investigate theoretically the operation of MEMS-tunable resonant membranes in the visible spectral region using a low-loss example medium. It may be possible to use these compact tunable pixels in display systems. In this application, a tunable pixelized display can be realized employing a broad line source and suitably N/MEMS-activated reflection/transmission guided-mode resonance (GMR) filters [2]. Advances in nanometric fabrication processes may allow utilization of such methods to spectrally tune the resonance position in the visible region.