Smith-Purcell radiation based on the transmission enhancement of a subwavelength hole array with inner tunnels.

Abstract

The use and control of the extraordinary optical transmission through subwavelength hole arrays has enormous application potential in photonic devices. In this paper, we propose a subwavelength hole array with inner tunnels, for which the Smith-Purcell radiation (SPR) with this enhanced transmission phenomenon in THz is excited when the transmission peak locates in the SPR band. The SPR is monitored using particle-in-cell simulations in order to analyze the mechanisms responsible for improving the radiation coherence. Analysis of the electron energy loss reveals that the proposed subwavelength hole array with inner tunnels outperforms a conventional subwavelength grating array with respect to SPR generation efficiency. As SPR plays a significant role in research on particle diagnosis and terahertz radiation sources, the performance of the proposed structure suggests that it has high application potential.