Plasmon mechanism of light transmission through a metal film or a plasma layer

Abstract

It is shown that a smooth metal film (or a plasma layer) can be made transparent for an electromagnetic wave when two identical subwavelength diffraction gratings are placed on both sides of the film. The electromagnetic wave transmission through the metal film is caused by excitation of evanescent surface waves (plasmons) and their transformation into propagating waves at the gratings. A model which is developed analytically shows that the problem of the wave transmission is physically equivalent to the problem of excitation of two coupled resonators of evanescent waves which are formed at the two film surfaces.