Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

The optical response of nanostructured surfaces and the composite diffracted evanescent wave model

Abstract

Investigations of the optical response of subwavelength-structure arrays milled into thin metal films have revealed surprising phenomena, including reports of unexpectedly high transmission of light. Many studies have interpreted the optical coupling to the surface in terms of the resonant excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), but other approaches involving composite diffraction of surface evanescent waves (CDEW) have also been proposed. Here we present a series of measurements on very simple one-dimensional subwavelength structures to test the key properties of the surface waves, and compare them to the CDEW and SPP models. We find that the optical response of the silver metal surface proceeds in two steps: a diffractive perturbation in the immediate vicinity (2–3 μ m) of the structure, followed by excitation of a persistent surface wave that propagates over tens of micrometres. The measured wavelength and phase of this persistent wave are significantly shifted from those expected for resonance excitation of a conventional SPP on a pure silver surface.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Essential elements of the CDEW model.
Figure 2: The incoming plane wave Ei impinges on the subwavelength slit (or hole) and a groove milled on the input side.
Figure 3: Goniometer setup for measuring far-field light intensity and angular distributions.
Figure 4: Scanning electron micrograph of one of the series of single-slit, single-groove structures FIB-milled into a 400-nm-thick silver layer deposited on 1-mm-thick flat quartz microscope slides.
Figure 5: Scanning electron micrograph of one of the series of single-groove, single-hole structures fabricated similarly to the single-groove, single-slit structures in Fig. 4.
Figure 6: Normalized far-field intensity I/I0 as a function of slit–groove distance xsg for the series of single-slit, single-groove structures mounted facing the input side with respect to plane-wave excitation.
Figure 7: Normalized far-field intensity I/I0 as a function of hole–groove distance xhg for the series of single-hole, single-groove structures mounted facing the input side with respect to plane-wave excitation.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ebbesen, T. W., Lezec, H. J., Ghaemi, H. F., Thio, T. & Wolff, H. J. Extraordinary optical transmission through sub-wavelength hole arrays. Nature 391, 667–669 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Thio, T., Pellerin, K. M., Linke, R. A., Ebbesen, T. W. & Lezec, H. J. Enhanced light transmission through a single subwavelength aperture. Opt. Lett. 26, 1972–1974 (2001).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ghaemi, H. F., Thio, T., Grupp, D. E., Ebbesen, T. W. & Lezec, H. J. Surface plasmons enhance optical transmission through subwavelength holes. Phys. Rev. B 58, 6779–6782 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Raether, H. Surface Plasmons on Smooth and Rough Surfaces and on Gratings (Springer, Berlin, 1988).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  5. Barnes, W. L., Dereux, A. & Ebbesen, T. W. Surface plasmon subwavelength optics. Nature 424, 824–830 (2003).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Treacy, M. J. Dynamical diffraction in metallic optical gratings. Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 606–608 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Treacy, M. J. Dynamical diffraction explanation of the anomalous transmission of light through metallic gratings. Phys. Rev. B 66, 195105 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Cao, Q. & Lalanne, P. Negative role of surface plasmons in the transmission of metallic gratings with very narrow slits. Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 057403 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. García-Vidal, F. J., Lezec, H. J., Ebbesen, T. W. & Martin-Moreno, L. Multiple paths to enhance optical transmission through a single subwavelength slit. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 213901 (2003).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Chang, S.-H., Gray, S. K. & Schatz, G. C. Surface plasmon generation and light transmission by isolated nanoholes and arrays of nanoholes in thin metal films. Opt. Express 13, 3150–3165 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Lezec, H. J. & Thio, T. Diffracted evansecent wave model for enhanced and suppressed optical transmission through subwavelength hole arrays. Opt. Express 12, 3629–3651 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Mandel, L. & Wolf, E. Optical Coherence and Quantum Optics 109–120 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1995).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. Kowarz, M. W. Homogeneous and evanescent contribution in scalar near-field diffraction. Appl. Opt. 34, 3055–3063 (1995).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Johnson, P. & Christy, R. Optical constants of the noble metals. Phys. Rev. B 11, 1315–1323 (1975).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Palik, E. (ed.) Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids (Academic, New York, 1985).

  16. Schouten, et al. Plasmon-assisted two-slit transmission: Young’s experiment revisited. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 053901 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Lalanne, P., Hugonin, J. P. & Rodier, J. C. Theory of surface plasmon generation at nanoslit apertures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 263902 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Petit, R. Electromagnetic Theory of Gratings 136–144 (Springer, Berlin, 1980).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  19. Mehan, N. & Mansingh, A. Study of tarnished films formed on silver by exposure to H2S with the surface-plasmon resonance technique. Appl. Opt. 39, 5214–5220 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Support from the Ministère délégué à l’Enseignement supérieur et à la Recherche under the programme ACI-‘Nanosciences-Nanotechnologies’, the Région Midi-Pyrénées [SFC/CR 02/22], and FASTNet [HPRN-CT-2002-00304] EU Research Training Network, is gratefully acknowledged, as is support from the Caltech Kavli Nanoscience Institute and from the AFOSR under Plasmon MURI FA9550-04-1-0434. Discussions and technical assistance from P. Lalanne, R. Mathevet, F. Kalkum, G. Derose, A. Scherer, D. Pacifici, J. Dionne, R. Walters and H. Atwater are also gratefully acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Weiner.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gay, G., Alloschery, O., Viaris de Lesegno, B. et al. The optical response of nanostructured surfaces and the composite diffracted evanescent wave model. Nature Phys 2, 262–267 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys264

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys264

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing