Abstract
The phenomenon of resonant tunneling through thin metal films with periodic narrow grooves is attributed to excitation of the surface plasmon (SP) via the periodic groove structure coupler at the metal surface. In this paper, we will use the particle-in-cell (PIC) plasma simulation method to study this SP-mediated optical tunneling. The PIC method is a time-domain scheme to calculate self-consistently the interaction between the electromagnetic fields and the plasma particles. At the beginning of simulation, the mobile electrons and immobile positive ions are uniformly distributed in the thin Gaussian-shaped-grooved silver film with the plasma density calculated from silver's plasma frequency. The momentum collision-frequency method is employed to model the collision dissipation. For normally incident TM-polarized wave, the transmission coefficients have the maximum values at the LSP resonant modes, similar to the results predicted by Drude model, except for with lower transmission coefficients. Due to the electron dynamics considered in the PIC method, the plasma energy and the trajectories can be monitored during the simulation. The change of the averaged plasma energy with time exhibits some ripple-like patterns, which comes from various competing processes of heating and cooling. But the temperature of the plasma has little effect on the transmission coefficient and the wave tunneling.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 59280G |
Pages (from-to) | 1-8 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
Volume | 5928 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2005 |
Event | Plasmonic Nanoimaging and Nanofabrication - San Diego, CA, United States Duration: 2005 Aug 3 → 2005 Aug 4 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Computer Science Applications
- Applied Mathematics
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering