Losses of Plasmon Surface Waves on Metallic Grating

Abstract

Abstract Diffraction and absorption losses of plasmon surface waves (PSW) propagating along a metallic grating are investigated numerically as a function of groove depth. A periodicity of diffraction losses is found to exist. The energy flow distribution (EFD) above and inside the grooves is calculated and a similarity between the PSW on shallow and deep gratings is established above the grooves, while inside the grooves of deep gratings totally hidden curls in EFD are found to form.