Spatially and polarization resolved plasmon mediated transmission through continuous metal films

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how undulated continuous metal films can be used to control light transmission and polarization at the nanoscale, with potential for low-cost manufacturing of optical filters.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of plasmon-mediated resonant transmission in undulated metal films, revealing polarization filtering and transmission effects with implications for scalable fabrication.

Findings

1D undulations enable polarization filtering.

2D undulations lead to polarization-independent transmission.

Transmission effects are demonstrated on metal-coated photoresist gratings.

Abstract

The experimental demonstration and characterization is made of the plasmon-mediated resonant transmission through an embedded undulated continuous thin metal film under normal incidence. 1D undulations are shown to enable a spatially resolved polarisation filtering whereas 2D undulations lead to spatially resolved, polarization independent transmission. Whereas the needed submicron microstructure lends itself in principle to CD-like low-cost mass replication by means of injection moulding and embossing, the present paper demonstrates the expected transmission effects on experimental models based on metal-coated photoresist gratings. The spectral and angular dependence in the neighbourhood of resonance are investigated and the question of the excess losses exhibited by surface plasmons is discussed