Electromagnetic coupling between a metal nanoparticle grating and a metallic surface

The electromagnetic coupling between a two-dimensional grating of resonant gold nanoparticles and a gold metallic film is investigated. We report on the observation of multipeaks in the extinction spectra attributed to resonant modes of the hybrid system, resulting from the coupling between the localized plasmon of the nanoparticles with the underlying surface plasmon mode. Simulations based on the Fourier modal method give good agreement with the experimental measurements and allow for the identification of the respective contributions. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.