title: Unified theory of surface-plasmonic enhancement and extinction of light transmission through metallic nanoslit arrays.
abstract: Metallic nanostructures are of immense scientific interest owing to unexpectedly strong interaction with light in deep subwavelength scales. Resonant excitations of surface and cavity plasmonic modes mediate strong light localization in nanoscale objects. Nevertheless, the role of surface plasmon-polaritons (SPP) in light transmission through a simple one-dimensional system with metallic nanoslits has been the subject of longstanding debates. Here, we propose a unified theory that consistently explains the controversial effects of SPPs in metallic nanoslit arrays. We show that the SPPs excited on the entrance and exit interfaces induce near-total internal reflection and abrupt phase change of the slit-guided mode. These fundamental effects quantitatively describe positive and negative effects of SPP excitation in a self-consistent manner. Importantly, the theory shows excellent agreement with rigorous numerical calculations while providing profound physical insight into the properties of nanoplasmonic systems.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19016, Arlington, TX 76019, USA.
authors.forename: Jae Woong
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Physics, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, KOREA.
authors.forename: Jun Hyung
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Physics, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, KOREA.
authors.forename: Seok Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19016, Arlington, TX 76019, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Magnusson