Giant Optical Transmission Through Nanometer-Scale Apertures

摘要

The extremely small optical transmission of a sub-wavelength aperture in a metal film limits the usefulness of near-field devices with super-resolution. But when the metal surface has periodic corrugations, a resonant interaction of the incident light with surface plasmon polaritons at the metal surface leads to extra-ordinary high transmission efficiencies. We review the physics of the surface plasmon enhanced transmission, and discuss possible applications.