Theory of absorption-induced transparency

[摘要] Recent experiments [Hutchison, O'Carroll, Schwartz, Genet, and Ebbesen, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 50, 2085 (2011)] have demonstrated that optical transmission through an array of subwavelength holes in a metal film can be enhanced by the intentional presence of dyes in the system. As the transmission maximum occurs spectrally close to the absorption resonances of the dyes, this phenomenon was christened absorption induced transparency. Here, a theoretical study on absorption induced transparency is presented. The results show that the appearance of transmission maxima requires that the absorbent fills the holes and that it occurs also for single holes. Furthermore, it is shown that the transmission process is nonresonant, being composed by a sequential passage of the electromagnetic field through the hole. Finally, the physical origin of the phenomenon is demonstrated to be nonplasmonic, which implies that absorption induced transparency should also occur at the infrared or terahertz frequency regimes.

[关键词] EXTRAORDINARY OPTICAL-TRANSMISSION;SUBWAVELENGTH HOLE ARRAYS;LIGHT;APERTURES;METAL