Extraordinary optical transmission through metal films with sub wavelength holes and slits

TL;DR

This paper reviews the phenomenon of extraordinary optical transmission through subwavelength holes and slits in metal films, highlighting its mechanisms and potential applications in nanophotonics.

Contribution

It provides a concise review of the mechanisms behind extraordinary optical transmission and discusses recent advances and applications in nanophotonics.

Findings

Large transmission at specific wavelengths in subwavelength perforated metal films

Surface plasmon polaritons facilitate enhanced transmission

Mechanisms of light transfer through subwavelength apertures are still being elucidated

Abstract

Continuous films of metals like gold and silver with a thickness of a few tens of nm have poor optical transmission in the visible and infrared. However, the same films become largely transparent when the transmission is mediated by coupled surface plasmon polaritons on the two surfaces of the film. Likewise, it is expected that optical transmission through a hole in an opaque metal film would be negligible if the size of the hole is much smaller than the wavelength of the incident radiation. Contrary to this, it was found a few years ago that opaque metal films perforated with a periodic array of sub wavelength holes exhibit large transmission at certain wavelengths. Such extraordinary optical properties of the metal films have attracted much attention in recent years. They have led to several proposals and demonstrations of nanophotonic applications in a wide range of areas, such as microscopy, spectroscopy, optoelectronics, optical data storage, bio-chemical sensing and so on. In parallel, extensive effort has been made to elucidate the mechanisms of efficient light energy transfer across metal films with arrays of sub wavelength apertures like holes and slits. Despite this effort, not all aspects of the underlying physics of the phenomena are fully understood yet. Here, we provide a short review of the various concepts put forth to explicate the large transmission of light across continuous metal films and films with sub wavelength apertures.