Plasma resonance absorption in conical diffraction: effects of groove depth

Abstract

Plasma resonance absorption of 633-nm photons in silver gratings produced holographically with groove spacing d = 2186 nm and corrugation amplitudes h = 9, 25, and 41 nm were studied in conical (nonplanar) diffraction geometries. Resonance absorption of p- and s-polarized incident photons were measured as a function of the ruling orientation relative to the plane of incidence by using the photoacoustic method. It was found that the relative intensities of resonance absorption for p- and s-polarized light are strongly dependent on the corrugation amplitude and that s-polarized photons are converted more efficiently to surface plasmons than p-polarized photons as the grating grooves become deeper.