Microscale heat transfer and thermal extinction of a wire-grid polarizer.

We explore heat transfer and thermal characteristics of a wire-grid polarizer (WGP) on a microscale by investigating the effect of various geometrical parameters such as wire-grid period, height, and a fill factor. The thermal properties arise from heat transfer by light absorption and conduction in wire-grids. Fill factor was found to be the most dominant geometrical parameter. For TM polarized light, a higher fill factor with thicker wire-grids increased the temperature. The local temperature was found to rise up to T(max) = 354.5 K. TE polarization tended to produce lower temperature. Thermal extinction due to polarimetric extinction by a WGP was also evaluated and highest extinction was observed to be 4.78 dB, which represents a temperature difference ΔT = 54.3 °C. We expect the results to be useful for WGPs in polarization-sensitive thermal switching applications.