Open AccessOptical transmission through single subwavelength apertures using prism coupled input of laser light of annular intensity profile
Author(s) -
Lei Feng,
Paul Dawson
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.15.017863
Subject(s) - optics , prism , materials science , surface plasmon , aperture (computer memory) , laser , grating , surface plasmon resonance , extraordinary optical transmission , surface plasmon polariton , optoelectronics , plasmon , physics , nanotechnology , nanoparticle , acoustics
Light transmission through a single subwavelength aperture in a silver film is examined with a novel input configuration comprising an annular laser beam of variable diameter that is prism-coupled to the back face of the silver. Transmission peaks driven by excitation of the back-face surface plasmon mode or by the aperture resonance itself are separately observed. For both cases, comparison of films with and without a front-face, circular, grating implies significantly more efficient coupling from the aperture fields to the front-face surface plasmon than directly to free radiation.