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Optical Transmission Through Multilayered Ultra-Thin Metal Gratings

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Abstract

Optical transmission properties of multilayered ultra-thin metal gratings are numerically studied. The transmission spectrum has a broad stop-band with extremely low transmittance compared to that of a single-layer one for TM polarization. The stop-band is shown to be formed by multiple-interference tunneling and various plasmon resonance processes in ultra-thin-metal and dielectric multilayers. That is on the transmission background of non-apertured metal/dielectric multilayer structures that have low transmission in the long-wavelength range due to destructive multiple-interference tunneling, the transmission is further suppressed in the stop-band by plasmon resonances in the top metal/dielectric layers, e.g., the anti-symmetric bound surface plasmon mode in the ultra-thin metal layer and the gap surface plasmon mode in the metal-sandwiched dielectric layer. High transmission beyond the stop-band is due to coupled gap surface plasmon mode in the entire multilayer structures. Applications of the optical properties of the multilayered ultra-thin metal gratings are suggested for optical filtering (wavelength or polarization selective).

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Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (No. 2011J06002) and the program for NCET in China (No. 08-0469).

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  1. Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Zhijun Sun, Xiaoliu Zuo & Jie Li

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  1. Zhijun Sun
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  2. Xiaoliu Zuo
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Correspondence to Zhijun Sun.

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Sun, Z., Zuo, X. & Li, J. Optical Transmission Through Multilayered Ultra-Thin Metal Gratings. Plasmonics 6, 745–751 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-011-9259-7

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