Light transmission through metallic channels much smaller than the wavelength

A resonant cavity-enhanced light transmission mechanism in metallic gratings with subwavelength apertures is theoretically interpreted for operation with visible light. It is shown that under appropriate boundary conditions, the apertures behave as open Fabry–Pérot resonant cavities delivering a hig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics communications 2000-03, Vol.175 (4), p.265-273
Main Authors: Astilean, S, Lalanne, Ph, Palamaru, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Circuit properties
Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations)
Collective excitations (including plasmons and other charge-density excitations)
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits
Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Integrated optics. Optical fibers and wave guides
Optical and optoelectronic circuits
Optics
Physics
Rigorous coupled-wave analysis
Sub-wavelength gratings
Surface and interface electron states
Surface plasmons
Wave optics
Wave propagation, transmission and absorption
Waveguides, couplers, and arrays
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Summary:A resonant cavity-enhanced light transmission mechanism in metallic gratings with subwavelength apertures is theoretically interpreted for operation with visible light. It is shown that under appropriate boundary conditions, the apertures behave as open Fabry–Pérot resonant cavities delivering a high photon flux, and that the coupling between the incident light and the fundamental mode supported by the aperture is strongly controlled by surface waves. Compared to the well-known perfect metallic case, we show that the effective index of the fundamental mode strongly depends on the aperture dimension, especially when aperture widths much smaller than the wavelength are considered. Consequently, it is predicted that small variations of aperture shape or dimensions have a huge effect on the transmission properties of real metallic gratings.
ISSN:0030-4018
1873-0310
DOI:10.1016/S0030-4018(00)00462-4