title: Annular aperture arrays: study in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
abstract: Baida and Van Labeke recently proposed a structure that exhibits a supertransmission of light through an array of nanometric coaxial apertures in a metallic film that has been named an annular aperture array (AAA) [Opt. Commun. 209, 17 (2002); Phys. Rev. B 67, 155314 (2003); J. Microsc. 213, 140 (2003)]. We present the first experimental study, to our knowledge, of an AAA structure in the visible region. For technological reasons, the structure under study does not produce a supertransmission of 80% as in Baida and Van Labeke [Opt. Commun. 209, 17 (2002)]. We built the nanostructure and experimentally recorded its far-field spectral response. This transmission shows only one broad band with a maximum around lambda = 700 nm, giving a maximum efficiency around 17%. A finite-difference time-domain simulation reproduces quite well the obtained transmission spectrum.
authors.affiliation: FEMTO-SIT UMR 6174, Département d'Optique P. M. Duffieux, Université de Franche-Comté, 16 Route de Gray, 25030 Besançon Cedex, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salvi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roussey
authors.forename: F I
authors.initials: FI
authors.lastname: Baida
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Bernal
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mussot
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sylvestre
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maillotte
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Van Labeke
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perentes
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Utke
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sandu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dwir