Manipulating light absorption in dye-doped dielectric films on reflecting surfaces

We experimentally and numerically developed a tunable absorbing nanoscale thin-film system, comprising of dye molecules doped dielectric coatings on reflecting surfaces, the absorption behaviors of which can be flexibly tuned by adjusting the system parameters, i.e. the coating thickness and the doping concentration of dye molecules. Specifically, with appropriate system parameters, our absorbing thin-film system exhibits very directional and polarization dependent absorption properties, which can be significantly altered if applied with different parameters. Calculations demonstrate the unique absorption behaviors are a result of coupling between molecular absorption and Fabry-Perot resonances in the thin-film cavity. In addition, we theoretically show that both the spectral and directional range of the absorption in the thin-film system can be intentionally regulated by doping dyes with different absorption band and setting proper excitation conditions of Fabry-Perot resonances. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America