Chapter 10
Waves on Subwalength Metallic Surfaces: A
Microscopic View Point
Philippe Lalanne and Haitao Liu
Abstract At a microscopic level, the electromagnetic properties of subwavelength
metallic surfaces are due to two kinds of elementary distinct waves, the surface
plasmon polaritons and the quasi-cylindrical waves. These waves are launched on the
metal surface by the scattering of the incident field on the subwavelength indentations,
and are subsequently scattered by adjacent indentations to ultimately form a complex
surface charge pattern that is responsible of various fascinating phenomena. We
review the fundamental properties that govern these waves and discuss their impacts
in the Wood anomaly of metallic gratings, a phenomenon historically attributed to
surface plasmon polaritons since the milestone work by U. Fano [10].
Keywords Wood anomalies · Surface plasmon · Extraordinary optical transmission · Theory of metallic grating · Quasi-cylindrical wave · Norton wave · Microscopic model · Plasmonic surfaces
10.1 Introduction
In 1902, R.W. Wood observed that the spectrum of a continuous light source reflected
by a metallic surface etched by a periodic array of tiny grooves exhibits a rapid variation that occurs within a range of wavelengths not greater than the distance between
the sodium lines. Since then, grating anomalies have fascinated specialists of optics
P. Lalanne (B)
Laboratoire Photonique, Numérique et Nanosciences, Institut d’Optique d’Aquitaine, Allée
Laroumagne, Univ Bordeaux 1 , CNRS, Talence 33405, , Talence Cedex, France
e-mail: philippe.lalanne@institutoptique.fr
H. Liu
Key Laboratory of Optical Information Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Institute
of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
e-mail: liuht@nankai.edu.cn
T. V. Shahbazyan and M. I. Stockman (eds.), Plasmonics: Theory and Applications,
379
Challenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics 15,
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-7805-4_10, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Waves on Subwalength Metallic Surfaces: A
Microscopic View Point
Philippe Lalanne and Haitao Liu
Abstract At a microscopic level, the electromagnetic properties of subwavelength
metallic surfaces are due to two kinds of elementary distinct waves, the surface
plasmon polaritons and the quasi-cylindrical waves. These waves are launched on the
metal surface by the scattering of the incident field on the subwavelength indentations,
and are subsequently scattered by adjacent indentations to ultimately form a complex
surface charge pattern that is responsible of various fascinating phenomena. We
review the fundamental properties that govern these waves and discuss their impacts
in the Wood anomaly of metallic gratings, a phenomenon historically attributed to
surface plasmon polaritons since the milestone work by U. Fano [10].
Keywords Wood anomalies · Surface plasmon · Extraordinary optical transmission · Theory of metallic grating · Quasi-cylindrical wave · Norton wave · Microscopic model · Plasmonic surfaces
10.1 Introduction
In 1902, R.W. Wood observed that the spectrum of a continuous light source reflected
by a metallic surface etched by a periodic array of tiny grooves exhibits a rapid variation that occurs within a range of wavelengths not greater than the distance between
the sodium lines. Since then, grating anomalies have fascinated specialists of optics
P. Lalanne (B)
Laboratoire Photonique, Numérique et Nanosciences, Institut d’Optique d’Aquitaine, Allée
Laroumagne, Univ Bordeaux 1 , CNRS, Talence 33405, , Talence Cedex, France
e-mail: philippe.lalanne@institutoptique.fr
H. Liu
Key Laboratory of Optical Information Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Institute
of Modern Optics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
e-mail: liuht@nankai.edu.cn
T. V. Shahbazyan and M. I. Stockman (eds.), Plasmonics: Theory and Applications,
379
Challenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics 15,
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-7805-4_10, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013