Mode splitting of surface plasmon resonance in super-period metal

nanohole array gratings

Junpeng Guo and Haisheng Leong

Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 241115 (2012); doi: 10.1063/1.4771992

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4771992
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Published by the American Institute of Physics.

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 APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 101, 241115 (2012)

Mode splitting of surface plasmon resonance in super-period metal nanohole

array gratings
Junpeng Guoa) and Haisheng Leong
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 301 Sparkman Dr.,
Huntsville, Alabama 35899, USA
(Received 1 November 2012; accepted 29 November 2012; published online 12 December 2012)
We experimentally observed surface plasmon resonance mode splitting in a super-period metal
nanohole array grating under the transverse magnetic polarization excitation. The mode splitting
was observed in the zeroth order transmission and also in the first order transmission. However, the
mode splitting phenomenon is more evident in the first order transmission than in the zeroth order
transmission. It is explained that the mode splitting is due to the coupling between the surface
plasmon resonance mode in the subwavelength period metal nanohole arrays and the resonance
C 2012 American Institute of Physics.
mode of the super-period metal grating. V
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4771992]

Extraordinary optical transmission through periodic direction of the grating vector of the super-period nanohole
nanohole arrays in metal films was first reported in 1998.1 grating in the x direction. The super-period of the nanohole
The phenomenon has been investigated extensively in the array grating is Ks . Within each effective grating line, the
past decade.2–15 Extraordinary optical transmission occurs in nanoholes are arranged periodically with a small subwave-
subwavelength period metal nanohole arrays when the fre- length period p. Rigorous FDTD numerical simulations were
quency of the excitation is tuned to the surface plasmon reso- performed to calculate the zeroth order transmission spec-
nance frequencies of the metal nanohole arrays. Surface trum and the first order transmission spectrum from the
plasmon resonances in the periodic nanoholes enhance light super-period nanohole grating with a commercial software
transmission through nanohole structured metal films. code developed by Lumerical Solutions, Inc. In the super-
Surface plasmon resonances in metal nanohole arrays period nanohole grating, the nanoholes are circular holes
were traditionally measured in the transmission using a spec- etched in a 50 nm thick gold film on a glass substrate. The di-
trometer. Recently, we proposed and demonstrated a tech- ameter of the holes is 140 nm. The small subwavelength pe-
nique for measuring surface plasmon resonances in metal riod (p) of the nanoholes in the super grating lines is 420 nm,
nanohole and nanoslit arrays.16–18 Our technique is to mea- which has been optimized to give the maximal optical trans-
sure surface plasmon resonances in the first order diffracted mission at the resonance. The super grating period (Ks ) is
transmission by creating a super-period grating pattern of the 2100 nm which is five times of the small period (p). In the
nanostructures. Because the first order transmission through simulations, periodic boundary conditions were used for all
patterned super-period metal nanohole or nanoslits array gra- the boundaries in the x and y directions and perfectly match-
tings is angularly dispersive, a photodetector array such as a ing layer (PML) boundary conditions were used in z direc-
CCD can be used to capture the resonance. The advantage of tion in both the transmission and the reflection regions. At
using super-period metal nanostructure gratings is that it the normal incidence, the propagation direction of the first
eliminates the use of external optical spectrometers for sur- order transmission has an angle h with respect to the surface
face plasmon resonance spectral measurement. normal of the nanohole gold film. Due to the coherence of
Previously, we reported surface plasmon resonance in the surface plasmon radiations from the nanoholes, the angle
super-period metal nanohole arrays under the transverse h is related to the super-period and the wavelength k as
electric (TE) polarization excitation.18 Resonance mode
splitting was not observed for the TE polarization excitation. k
sinðhÞ ¼ : (1)
In this paper, we report an interesting surface plasmon reso- Ks
nance mode splitting phenomenon that was observed under
the transverse magnetic (TM) polarization excitation in a Figure 1(b) shows the calculated zero-order transmission
super-period nanohole array grating. The resonance mode spectrum (the solid black line) and the first order transmis-
splitting in the super-period metal nanohole array grating is sion spectrum (the dashed red line) from the gold nanohole
explained with finite difference time domain (FDTD) numer- array grating. For comparison, we also calculated the total
ical simulations in this paper. transmittance through a regular periodic metal nanohole
Figure 1(a) illustrates a super-period nanohole array gra- array with the same small period and the same nanohole size
ting excited with a normally incident TM polarization optical in a gold film of the same thickness on a same kind of sub-
wave. The polarization of the TM excitation is along the strate. The solid blue line curve shows the transmission spec-
trum through the regular periodic nanohole array. It can be
clearly seen that in the super-period nanohole array, the fun-
a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: damental resonance mode at the 760.5 nm wavelength is split
guoj@uah.edu. into two resonance modes. The resonance mode splitting can

0003-6951/2012/101(24)/241115/4/$30.00 101, 241115-1 C 2012 American Institute of Physics

V

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241115-2 J. Guo and H. Leong Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 241115 (2012)

FIG. 2. (a) A SEM picture of the fabricated super-period nanohole array gra-
ting in a 50 nm gold film as glass substrate. (b) Color coded spatially dis-
persed first order transmission intensity captured by the CCD. The incident
light has the TM polarization.

was captured with a CCD (Sony ICX098BQ) placed

14.8 mm away from the device. Fig. 2(b) shows the color
coded, spatially dispersed first order transmission intensity
image captured by the CCD. It can be seen from the
Fig. 2(b) that three resonance modes corresponding to three
bright spots on the CCD exist in the first order transmission.
To obtain the first order transmission spectrum, calibra-
FIG. 1. (a) A super-period metal nanohole grating with a small subwave- tion of the measurement system is needed to find the corre-
length period (p) and a super grating period (Ks ). (b) Calculated zeroth order
transmission (the black line) and the first order transmission (the red dashed spondence between the CCD pixels and wavelengths. A
line) from a super-period nanohole array grating. The blue line curve is the HeNe laser of 632.8 nm wavelength was used to for the cali-
total transmission from a corresponding regular periodic metal nanohole bration. The HeNe laser was incident to the nanohole array
array.
device collinearly with the excitation light and the CCD
pixel corresponding to the first order transmission of the
be seen in the zeroth order transmission and also in the first HeNe laser was identified. After the pixel for the HeNe laser
order transmission. The resonance peak wavelengths in the was identified, the correspondence between the pixels on the
first order transmission are different from the resonance peak CCD and the wavelengths can be obtained.
wavelengths in the zeroth order transmission. The resonance After the correspondence between the CCD pixels and
mode splitting is more evidently seen in the first order trans- wavelengths was obtained from the calibration, the first order
mission than in the zeroth order transmission. transmission spectrum from the super-period nanohole gra-
A super-period nanohole array grating device was fabri- ting device was obtained from the spatially dispersed first
cated in a 50 nm thick gold film on a glass wafer with a order transmission intensity image captured by the CCD.
standard electron beam lithography patterning and etching The first order transmission spectrum is plotted as the blue
process. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) picture of line curve in Fig. 3. We also measured the zeroth order trans-
the fabricated device is shown in Fig. 2(a). The diameter of mission spectrum with a commercial optical spectrometer
the fabricated nanoholes is approximate 140 nm. The small (Ocean Optics USB 2000). The result is also plotted in the
subwavelength period of the nanoholes is 420 nm. The super Fig. 3 as the black line curve. It can be seen that the funda-
grating period is 2100 nm, which is five times of the small mental plasmon resonance mode is split into two resonance
period. The fabricated device has a total patterned nanohole modes, which can be seen in the zeroth order transmission
area of 300  300 lm2. and also in the first order transmission. The mode splitting is
The fabricated super-period nanohole array grating was more evident in the first order transmission than in the zeroth
tested with a super continuum broadband laser source (from order transmission spectrum. The resonance wavelengths of
NKT Photonics, Inc.). The broadband laser has a spectral the split resonance modes in the zeroth order transmission
range from 500 nm to 2400 nm. The broadband laser was first are 757.5 nm and 836.8. The resonance wavelengths of the
filtered with a linear polarizer to ensure the excitation has split modes in the first order transmission are 728 nm and
the TM polarization (i.e., the electric field is perpendicular to 838.1 nm, respectively.
the effective nanohole grating lines). The incident light is To understand the resonance mode splitting in the
normally incident from the substrate side. The angularly dis- super-period metal nanohole array, we calculated the electric
persed intensity distribution of the first order transmission field resonance at two near field point monitor locations:

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241115-3 J. Guo and H. Leong Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 241115 (2012)

FIG. 3. The measured zeroth order transmission and the first order transmis-
sion from the super-period metal nanohole array grating.

One is at the center of an inner nanohole aperture in the

FIG. 5. Electric field intensity distributions on the plane 20 nm above the
super-period grating unit cell and another is at the center of gold film top surface at (a) 732.5 nm wavelength, (b) 836.7 nm wavelength,
an outer nanohole aperture in the super-period grating unit and (c) 749.5 nm wavelength.
cell, all 20 nm above the gold film top surface. The electric
field intensities at these two monitors were calculated at
different wavelengths and plotted in Fig. 4. The red line two inner nanoholes are also excited, but not as strong as the
curve shows the electric field intensity at the point monitor resonance at 732.5 nm wavelength. Fig. 5(c) shows the elec-
located at the center of the inner nanohole aperture. The tric field intensity distribution at the resonance wavelength
electric field intensity curve indicates two local plasmon res- of 749.5 nm. At 749.5 nm wavelength, the two outer nano-
onance modes. One is at 732.5 nm wavelength. Another is at holes are strongly excited.
836.7 nm wavelength. The black line curve shows the elec- Considering the nanoholes in the metal film as the radia-
tric field intensity at the point monitor located at the center tion sources, plasmonic optical radiations propagate in space
of the outer nanohole aperture. One resonance mode is according to the spatial electromagnetic field distributions
observed at 749.5 nm wavelength. and the resonance strengths of these nanohole plasmonic op-
We also calculated the electric field intensity distribu- tical radiators. It is interesting to notice that the near field
tions at these three near field resonance wavelengths shown resonances of inner holes contribute to the far field resonan-
in Fig. 4 on the plane 20 nm above the nanohole metal film ces in the first order transmission. We plot the inner hole
top surface. Fig. 5(a) shows the electric field intensity distri- near field resonance spectrum and the first order transmission
bution at the resonance wavelength of 732.5 nm. At this spectrum in Fig. 6(a). It can be seen that the near field of the
wavelength, the two inner nanoholes are strongly excited. inner holes has a resonance mode at 732.5 nm wavelength
Fig. 5(b) shows the electric field intensity distribution at the and the first order transmission spectrum has a corresponding
resonance wavelength of 836.7 nm. At this wavelength, the peak at 731.5 nm wavelength. The near field of the inner
holes has another resonance mode at 836.7 nm wavelength
and the first order transmission also has a corresponding
peak at 835.7 nm wavelength. The first order transmission
peaks approximately at the same wavelengths of the near
field resonances of the inner nanoholes, but with a small
blue-shift. The small blue-shift from the near field resonance
to the far-field resonance is due to the oscillation damping of
plasmonic nanohole antenna optical radiators.19–22
In Fig. 4, it can be seen that the outer nanoholes have a
strong near field resonance mode at 749.5 nm wavelength,
but this resonance mode does not exist in the first order dif-
fracted transmission spectrum. However, after we calculated
the second order diffracted transmission from the super-
period nanohole grating, it was found that the near field reso-
nance in the outer nanoholes manifests in the second order
transmission instead of the first order transmission. Fig. 6(b)
shows the calculated second order transmission spectrum
FIG. 4. Electric field resonance curves calculated at the two near field point
monitors. One near field monitor is located 20 nm above the center of an
from the device and the near field resonance spectrum of the
inner nanohole aperture. Another near field monitor is located 20 nm above outer nanoholes. It can be seen clearly that the second order
the center of an outer nanohole aperture. transmission has a strong resonance peak at 749.5 nm

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241115-4 J. Guo and H. Leong Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 241115 (2012)

FIG. 7. The calculated first order transmission spectra from super-period

nanohole gratings with varying super grating periods.

nanohole gratings. It is found that the resonance mode split-

ting observed in the far field transmission is related to the
near field resonance mode splitting of the super-period nano-
holes. Also, it is found that the super grating period of the
nanoholes controls the amount of the resonance mode split-
ting measured in the far field transmissions.
This work was partially sponsored by the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration through the Grant
NNX12AI09A and the National Science Foundation through
the Award No. 0814103.
FIG. 6. (a) The inner hole near field resonance and the first order transmis-
sion spectrum. (b) The outer hole near field resonance and the second order
transmission spectrum.
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