Excitations of surface plasmon polaritons in double layer metal grating structures

摘要

We study the light scattering properties of double layer gratings (DLGs) made from Au on SiO_2 substrates. It is found that surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be excited in the DLGs for a separation of up to 150 nm between the two Au grating layers and the collective reflectance spectra exhibit a strong resonant peak and a closely lying dip as a result of the surface plasmon polariton excitations. It is also found that the angle-resolved specular reflectance spectra show a dip-peak pair structure, while the angle-resolved reflectance spectra of higher diffracted orders show a complementary peak-dip pair structure. Finally, operation of the DLGs for efficient wavelength demultiplexing is proposed and discussed in light of these results.