title: Observation of enhanced transmission for s-polarized light through a subwavelength slit.
abstract: Enhanced optical transmission (EOT) through a single aperture is usually achieved by exciting surface plasmon polaritons with periodic grooves. Surface plasmon polaritons are only excited by p-polarized incident light, i.e. with the electric field perpendicular to the direction of the grooves. The present study experimentally investigates EOT for s-polarized light. A subwavelength slit surrounded on each side by periodic grooves has been fabricated in a gold film and covered by a thin dielectric layer. The excitation of s-polarized dielectric waveguide modes inside the dielectric film strongly increases the s-polarized transmission. A 25 fold increase is measured as compared to the case without the dielectric film. Transmission measurements are compared with a coupled mode method and show good qualitative agreement. Adding a waveguide can improve light transmission through subwavelength apertures, as both s and p-polarization can be efficiently transmitted.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology, CSEM SA, Jaquet-Droz 1, CH-2002 Neuchâtel, Switzerland. mickael.guillaumee@csem.ch
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guillaumée
authors.forename: A Yu
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Nikitin
authors.forename: M J K
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Dunbar
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Spassov
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Eckert
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martín-Moreno
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: García-Vidal
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Stanley