Polarization independent enhanced optical transmission in one-dimensional gratings and device applications

A review and analysis is performed of various resonance effects associated with subwavelength one-dimensional (1-D) metal gratings for transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarized incident radiation. It is shown that by tuning the structural geometry (especially the groove width) and material composition of the 1-D gratings, polarization independent enhanced optical transmission (EOT) can be achieved. Three different cases of EOT have been studied for 1-D metal gratings: a) EOT for TM-polarized incident radiation b) EOT for TE-polarized incident radiation, and most importantly c) EOT for un-polarized incident light. Potential uses of these results in the design and improvement of various optoelectronic devices, such as polarizers, photodetectors and wavelength filters are discussed. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.