Plasmonic antiresonance through subwavelength hole arrays.

It has been shown both experimentally and numerically that the phenomenon of extraordinary transmission through subwavelength hole arrays is generally associated with a drop in transmission located very close to it. Paradoxically, this antiresonant drop occurs at the wavelength that, at first glance, should provoke a resonant excitation of a surface plasmon propagating along the metallic surface of the screen. The present paper gives a theoretical demonstration of this phenomenon, which dispels the paradox.

Linearly damped modes at gap edges of photonic crystals.

It is shown that for one-dimensional dielectric photonic crystals, the Bloch modes, a vital tool in the analysis of these structures, cannot provide a complete representation of the electromagnetic field at the edges of bandgaps. On these points, the couple of Bloch modes representing the propagation on both sides of the crystal reduces to a single one, with a stationary field, and a complete representation of the field inside the crystal illuminated by a plane wave must include a linearly damped mode (LDM), the amplitude of which behaves linearly in space. The theory of transfer matrices and the use of basic properties of the field allow a precise description of the LDM from a few parameters.

Total absorption of light by lamellar metallic gratings.

Lamellar gratings illuminated in conical (off-plane) mounting can achieve with suitable optogeometrical parameters (grating profile, angle of incidence and wavelength) a total absorption of light for any polarization provided there is only the zeroth propagating order. A detailed analysis shows that electromagnetic resonances are involved and their nature strongly depends on the polarization. When the incident electric field is parallel to the cross-section of the grating, the resonance is provoked by the excitation of surface plasmons.

Why a harmonic solution for lossless, perfectly homogeneous, left-handed material cannot exist.

In a preceding paper [J. Opt. Soc.

Narrow-band filtering with whispering modes in gratings made of fibers.

We present a numerical study of whispering modes in gratings made of fibers. Due to the strong localization of the modes inside each fiber, it is possible to obtain narrow-band filters with very broad angular tolerance.

Are optical forces derived from a scalar potential?

The expression of optical forces provoked by an incident light illuminating particles can be deduced from the Lorentz law. It is shown that these forces derive from a scalar potential in the 2D problem and s-polarization, with light propagating in the cross-section plane of the particles, a fact which shows that the separation between gradient and scattering forces could be questioned. This property does not extend to the p-polarization and 3D problem.

Enhanced SPR sensitivity using periodic metallic structures.

A sinusoidal silver grating is used to create a six-fold enhancement of the SPR response compared to a flat surface. The grating parameters are chosen to create a surface plasmon bandgap and it is shown that the enhancement of the sensitivity to bulk sample index occurs when operating near the bandgap. The Kretschmann configuration is considered and the Boundary Element Method is used to generate the dispersion curves.

Theoretical study of photonic band gaps in woodpile crystals.

We investigate numerically the existence of photonic band gaps in woodpile crystals. We present a numerical method specifically developed to solve Maxwell's equations in such photonic structures. It is based upon a rigorous mathematical formulation and leads to a considerable improvement of the convergence speed as compared to other existing numerical methods.

Perfect lenses made with left-handed materials: Alice's mirror?

In a recent paper, Pendry [Phys. Rev. Lett.

Chromatic dispersion and losses of microstructured optical fibers.

Using a rigorous and vector multipole method, we compute both losses and dispersion properties of microstructured optical fibers with finite cross sections. We restrict our study to triangular lattices of air-hole inclusions in a silica matrix, taking into account material dispersion. The fiber core is modeled by a missing inclusion.

Microstructured optical fibers: where's the edge?

We establish that Microstructured Optical Fibers (MOFs) have a fundamental mode cutoff, marking the transition between modal confinement and non-confinement, and give insight into the nature of this transition through two asymptotic models that provide a mapping to conventional fibers. A small parameter space region where neither of these asymptotic models holds exists for the fundamental mode but not for the second mode; we show that designs exploiting unique MOF characteristics tend to concentrate in this preferred region.

Phenomenological theory of filtering by resonant dielectric gratings.

Using a phenomenological theory of diffraction gratings made by perturbing a planar waveguide allows us to deduce important properties of the sharp filtering phenomena generated by this kind of structure when the incident light excites a guided wave. It is shown that the resonance phenomenon occurring in these conditions acts on one of the two eigenvalues of the Hermitian reflection matrix only. As a consequence, we deduce a mathematical expression of the reflectivity and demonstrate that high-efficiency filtering of unpolarized light requires the simultaneous excitation of two uncoupled guided waves.