Quenched optical transmission in ultrathin subwavelength plasmonic gratings

(Received 3 November 2010; revised manuscript received 13 December 2010; published 27 January 2011)We discuss the optical properties of one-dimensional ultrathin subwavelength, metallic gratings undertransverse magnetic excitation, with particular attention to the phenomenon of quenched transmission, recentlyhighlighted in several optical experiments. In particular, we consider a grating with thickness comparable to orless than the metal skin depth, showing how the geometrical properties of the grating can dramatically modify itstransmission properties, often in a counterintuitive way. We study the role played by short-range and long-rangesurface plasmons (SPs) and localized SP resonances, showing that quenched transmission must be ascribed tolocalized resonance effects, while long-range and short-range SPs play only a marginal role in this anomalouseffect.DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.83.035426 PACS number(s): 42