Left-handed extraordinary optical transmission through a photonic crystal of subwavelength hole arrays

Metamaterial structures are artificial materials that show unconventional electromagnetic properties such as photonic band-gap, extraordinary optical transmission and left-handed propagation. Up to now, relations of photonic crystals and negative refraction have been shown as well as of photonic crystals and sub-wavelength hole arrays. Here we report a left-handed metamaterial engineered by a combination of sub-wavelength hole array plates periodically stacked to form a photonic crystal structure. It is shown the possibility of fine-tuning the metamaterial in order to permit extraordinary optical transmission and left-handed behaviour. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of engineering left-handed metamaterials by just drilling holes in metallic plates and brings together single structure photonic crystals, extraordinary optical transmission and left-handed behaviour. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.