Role of metal film thickness on the enhanced transmission properties of a periodic array of subwavelength apertures

We have measured the enhanced transmission properties of periodic arrays of subwavelength apertures fabricated in thin metal films as a function of the metal film thickness. In doing so, we determine the minimum metal film thickness for an array that exhibits resonantly enhanced transmission and observe the transmission properties as the metal film thickness is increased. The thickness range explored extends from delta/15, where delta is the skin depth, to approximately 2 delta. Using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, we measure both the amplitude and phase of the transmitted broadband THz pulses. Experimentally, we find that there is negligible transmission enhancement for metal films as thin as delta/15. As the film thickness increases, there is a sublinear increase in the enhancement until the film thickness is equal to the skin depth. For metal films thicker than one skin depth, there appears to be little additional enhancement at the resonant frequencies. We also observe that as the thickness of metal films increases, there is a corresponding increase in the resonance frequencies. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America