Transmissive Surface-Plasmon Light Valves

Transmissive light valves based on voltage-tunable color-selective absorption of light in surface plasmons are undergoing development. Like other surface-plasmon-based devices reported in a number of recent articles in NASA Tech Briefs, these light valves could be constructed in many different configurations and concatenated with other optical and electronic components to produce a variety of display and color-filtering devices. These devices would be compatible with, and could be incorporated into, monolithic integrated circuits for use in display, addressing, and interface applications.