Influence of aperture shape on the transmission properties of a periodic array of subwavelength apertures

We demonstrate that the resonantly enhanced transmission spectrum associated with a periodic array of subwavelength apertures is dependent upon the shape of the apertures. This is demonstrated using coherent terahertz radiation and aperture arrays fabricated in 75 mum thick stainless steel foils. We examine rectangular apertures with different aspect ratios as well as circular apertures. In the absence of periodicity in the arrays, no resonance features are present. For periodic arrays, we show that the ratio of the transmission coefficients for the two lowest order resonances can be directly related to the ratio of the appropriate aperture dimensions. From the time-domain waveforms, we find two independent, yet phase-coherent, transmission processes: non-resonant transmission related to the simple transmission through subwavelength apertures and a time-delayed resonant transmission related to the interaction of the THz pulse with the periodic aperture array. In these waveforms, we also observe a sign inversion for the primary bipolar pulse relative to the reference. This is shown to be a simple consequence of diffraction. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.