Abstract
We report on the extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) of an orbital angular momentum (OAM) state of light in the paraxial approximation. The OAM state transmits through a subwavelength metal hole array with a square structure, and then is analyzed by using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In the experiment, the transmitted light well conserves the OAM information while the transmission efficiency of the OAM mode is much greater than 1 (i.e., EOT works). Further study shows that the OAM mode has no significant influence on the transmission spectrum of the EOT paraxial process under our experimental configuration. Our work can be useful for future plasmon-based OAM devices.
Highlights
The phenomenon of extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) was first reported in 1998 by Ebbesen et al, who studied the light passing through subwavelength metal hole arrays [1]
Our results directly demonstrate that the orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode exists in the paraxial EOT process after it passes through such subwavelength metal hole array
We experimentally demonstrate the survival of an OAM state of light during an EOT paraxial process
Summary
The phenomenon of extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) was first reported in 1998 by Ebbesen et al, who studied the light passing through subwavelength metal hole arrays [1]. What strongly attracts researchers is its greatly enhanced far-field transmission efficiency at certain wavelengths. Such phenomenon is contradictive to Bethe’s classical aperture theory [2]. The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light was first proposed and demonstrated by Allen et al in 1992 [16] Their pioneering work shows that the OAM is one of the important properties of photons. Our experimental demonstration presents the direct evidence to show whether the collective electron oscillations during the EOT paraxial process in a metal hole array will change the OAM states. By measuring the transmission spectrums of a Gaussian state and an OAM state, we study the influence of TC on the transmission efficiency
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