Electric quadrupole excitation in surface plasmon resonance of metallic composite nanohole arrays

We present an experimental and theoretical study on the composite nanostructures composed of the LT-shaped metallic nanohole arrays. Multiple resonance transmission peaks are observed in the optical transmission spectra. By analyzing their electric field distributions on the interface, we infer the electric dipole and the electric quadrupole plasmonic resonances contribute to these transmission peaks. The electric quadrupole is a subradiant mode, which cannot be directly excited by the incident light. Here, we demonstrate that the surface plasmon polaritons can excite the electric quadrupole plasmonic resonance mode through the near-field interaction. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3643036]