Light emission from the shadows: Surface plasmon nano-optics at near and far fields

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
When light illuminates a thick metal film perforated with small holes, shadows appear. At the nanoscopic level, however, light can be emitted predominantly from the metal surfaces between the holes—shadows can be indeed brighter than the lighted holes. The symmetry of the near-field emission pattern is determined by the symmetry of the surface plasmon waves. Surprisingly, these nanoscopic emission patterns from the metal can be preserved to the far-field region, where the pattern becomes sinusoidal. This unusual behavior of light emission from the shadows is explained by efficient wave vector selection.