Resonant photon tunneling via surface plasmon polaritons through one-dimensional metal-dielectric metamaterials.
We report resonant photon tunneling (RPT) through one-dimensional metamaterials consisting of alternating layers of metal and dielectric. RPT via a surface plasmon polariton state permits evanescent light waves with large wavenumbers to be conveyed through the metamaterial. This is the mechanism for sub-wavelength imaging recently demonstrated with a super-lens. Furthermore, we find that the RPT peak is shifted from the reflectance dip with increasing the number of Al layers, indicating that the shift is caused by the losses in the RPT.
Tomita
Satoshi
S
Graduate School of Materials Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), 8916-5 Takayama, Ikoma, Nara 630-0192, Japan. tomita@ms.naist.jp
Yokoyama
Takashi
T
Yanagi
Hisao
H
Wood
Ben
B
Pendry
John B
JB
Fujii
Minoru
M
Hayashi
Shinji
S
D003198:Computer Simulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017785:Photons; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*
D008670:Metals