The extraordinary optical transmission through double-layer gold slit arrays

Abstract

We present the numerical investigation of the optical transmission through a periodic gold nano-slit structure composed with two non-identical layers, and compare it with that of double-layer structure with two identical layers. The optical enhancement is attributed to the surface Plasmon resonance collaborated with the localized waveguide resonance. It is shown that the transmission behaviors are strongly dependent on the layer separation and lateral displacement between the two single metallic gratings. Especially, it is found that extraordinary transmission exists even if the slit of one layer shifts laterally over that of the other one to the situation that no light can propagate directly when layer separation D = 0. When the slit widths of two layers are not equal, the surface plasmon resonance peak alternately decreases and increases twice, and the localized waveguide resonance peak appears at a longer wavelength as the lateral displacement varies for a non-zero layer separation, which differs from the situation with two identical layers. These transmission properties of the structures show promise for applications in optical devices.