Enhanced optical transmission through

metal films with rotation-symmetrical hole

arrays
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 091105 (2005); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2034120
Submitted: 06 April 2005 • Accepted: 06 July 2005 • Published Online: 22 August 2005

Qian-jin Wang, Jia-qi Li, Cheng-ping Huang, et al.

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Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 091105 (2005); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2034120 87, 091105

© 2005 American Institute of Physics.

 APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 87, 091105 共2005兲

Enhanced optical transmission through metal films with

rotation-symmetrical hole arrays
Qian-jin Wang, Jia-qi Li, Cheng-ping Huang, Chao Zhang, and Yong-yuan Zhua兲
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093,
People’s Republic of China
共Received 6 April 2005; accepted 6 July 2005; published online 22 August 2005兲
The transmission of light through metal surface with subwavelength holes are influenced by many
factors, and the rotational symmetry of hole arrays can be one of them. In this paper, we fabricated
the hole lattices in metal films with different symmetry and measured the transmission spectra from
the visible to near-infrared region. It is found that both the spectrum shape and the transmission
efficiency are strongly dependent on the rotational symmetry. The spectrum shape is governed by
the reciprocal vectors. And the higher is the symmetry order, the larger the peak efficiency. The
results provide us with new insight into the unusual effect. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.
关DOI: 10.1063/1.2034120兴

The optical transmission through metal surface perfo- these rotation operations applied about a lattice point, the
rated with subwavelength holes is a rather complex and in- lattices can be mapped into themselves. In this paper, the
teresting issue, and has received much attention since subwavelength circular holes arranged in graphite, square
1998.1–3 In such systems the zero-order transmission can be and hexagonal arrays, owning respectively three-, four-, and
larger than unity when normalized to the areas of the holes, sixfold rotational symmetry, are employed in the experi-
which is difficult to understand with the conventional diffrac- ments. Different from the above work, here the rotational
tion theory. Consequently, many works have been devoted to symmetry rather than the hole shape is aimed at specially.
the underlying physics of the effect. It is generally believed We fabricated them in Au films and measured the transmis-
that the surface plasmon polariton 共SPP兲 modes originating sion spectra from the visible to infrared region. Different
from coupling of light to collective oscillation of electrons transmission properties are exhibited relying on the lattice
play the crucial role.4,5 Nevertheless, the SPP mechanism symmetry, which provides us with new insight into the un-
cannot clarify all the observations and has not been agreed usual effect.
by all authors.6,7 In spite of the divergence of the mechanism We cut a single-mode optical fiber and coated the cross
involved, the enhanced transmission has a wide range of po- section with the Au film by sputtering 关Fig. 1共a兲兴. The hole
tential applications, e.g., in integrated photonic circuits, near- arrays in the metal film were fabricated with the focused-ion-
field optics, or in nanolithography.8 Hence, the transmission beam system 共strata FIB 201, FEI company, 30 keV Ga
properties are being widely explored for both theoretical and ions兲. Figures 1共b兲–1共d兲 show the FIB images of three types
practical interest.
The transmission properties of light through metal films
are influenced by many factors, such as the interface media,
the film thickness, and so on.9 Actually, the geometry struc-
ture of the metal surface also affects the optical transmission
greatly. As we know, the formation of hole lattices in experi-
ments comes from two aspects, one is the hole shape and the
other is the way the holes form the lattices. The latter in-
volves the rotational symmetry of the hole arrays. In previ-
ous work, much attention have been focused on the square
array and many types of nanoholes, including elliptical,10
rectangular,11 C-shaped,12,13 X-shaped,14 and coaxial holes,15
have been studied. By varying the lattice constant and the
hole size, the optical transmission for hexagonal hole arrays
perforated in chromium films has also been reported.16 How-
ever, the effect of rotational symmetry of the lattices on the
transmission has not received considerable attention. As is
known, rotational symmetry is the most basic structure char-
acter of the lattices, and it has great relationship with the
optical properties of the hole arrays. Thus it will act signifi-
cantly in the transmission. There are five kinds of rotational FIG. 1. Focus-ion-beam images of Au film perforated with subwavelength
symmetry in two dimensions, with the rotation axes denoted hole arrays. 共a兲 The Au film was coated on the top of the single-mode optical
by the symbols 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6.17 That is, with the use of fiber, and each array was made with the same size 14 ␮m ⫻ 14 ␮m 共the
white area in the center兲, 共b兲 square array, 共c兲 hexagonal array, and 共d兲
graphite array. The film thickness of Au is 390 nm, the hole diameter is
a兲
Electronic mail: yyzhu@nju.edu.cn 360 nm, and the space between the nearest holes is 900 nm.

0003-6951/2005/87共9兲/091105/3/$22.50 87, 091105-1 © 2005 American Institute of Physics

091105-2 Wang et al.
FIG. 2. Zero-order transmission spectra of the hexagonal array 共the solid
line兲, the square array 共the dashed line兲, and the graphite array 共the dotted
line兲. Inset: enhancement factor of the optical transmission of three arrays,
which is obtained by normalizing the zero-order transmission to the area of
the holes.
of hole arrays with different rotational symmetry. In order to
give a good comparison, the three arrays 共each with the size
14 ␮m ⫻ 14 ␮m兲 were made with the same film thickness t
= 390 nm, the same hole diameter d = 360 nm, and the same
hole space between the nearest neighbors a = 900 nm. In the
experiments, an unpolarized light from a 50 W halogen lamp
was coupled into the single-mode fiber for which the light
can be considered to be incident normal to the metal film.
Zero-order transmission was obtained with an optical-
spectrum analyzer 共ANDO AQ-6315A兲.
Figure 2 shows the zero-order transmission spectra of
the three types of arrays. An outstanding property obtained
from the spectra is that transmission peaks are supported by
the metal structures under investigation in certain wave-
length regions. However, in the three arrays, both the spec-
trum shape and transmission efficiency differ from one to
another. Generally, the spectrum shape is characterized by a
set of transmission minima and maxima, and each minimum
is accompanied by a maximum. For the square array, the
minima has been well identified as the result of Wood’s
anomaly, which occurs when a diffracted wavevector be-
comes tangent to the media interface.18 This point is still
valid in the case of hexagonal or graphite hole arrays. The
position of minimum can be given by
␭min = 2␲nd/Gmn . 共1兲
Here, nd is the refractive index of the dielectric medium 共nd
is 1 for air and 1.47 for quartz兲, and Gmn is the reciprocal
vector provided by the metal surface, where m and n are two
integers. It is obvious that the reciprocal vectors participate
in the light-metal interactions, and play an important role in
the optical transmission. Due to different rotational symme-
try in real space, the three arrays own different reciprocal
space and show different transmission spectra. The recipro-
cal vector of the square array is written as Gmn
= 共2␲ / a兲冑m2 + n2, and then the locations of transmission
minima relating to two interfaces are obtained to be 900 and
1323 nm, which is in good agreement with the experiments.
For the hexagonal array with Gmn = 共4␲ / 冑3a兲冑m2 + n2 + mn,
the first-order reciprocal vector is 2 / 冑3 times larger than that
Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 091105 共2005兲
of square array, and thus predicted minima locate at the re-
duced wavelength 779 and 1146 nm. And the graphite array,
which is more complex than others, can be generated from a
hexagonal array by removing another hexagonal one with the
hole space 冑3a. The reciprocal vector pertaining to this case
is Gmn = 共4␲ / 3a兲冑m2 + n2 + mn, where G1,1 共G1,−2 , G2,−1兲 lead
to the same positions of minima as that of hexagonal array
with G1,0 共or G0,1兲. Two noticeable transmission minima at
1009 nm and 1331 nm are also detected, which corresponds
to the reciprocal vectors such as G2,0 and G1,0, etc.
Besides the spectrum shape, a strong variation of the
peak efficiency relying on the hole arrays is also displayed in
Fig. 2. Among the three arrays, as a comparison, the graphite
one has the lowest peak value of the transmission efficiency,
which is about 9.1% at the wavelength 1221 nm. While for
the square array with the higher rotational symmetry, the
peak transmission efficiency is improved and attains 17.6%
at the wavelength 1037 nm. And for the hexagonal hole ar-
rays owning sixfold rotation axes, peak efficiency up to
31.7% is achieved, which is about twice that of the square
array. It is suggested that the transmission efficiency through
the metal film has a strong dependence on the rotational
symmetry of the hole arrays. This idea is further strength-
ened by a comparison of the transmission enhancement fac-
tor of the three arrays, which is obtained by normalizing the
zero-order transmission to the areas of the holes 共inset in Fig.
2兲. The normalized areas of the holes for the graphite, the
square, and the hexagonal arrays employed in this experi-
ment are 9.68%, 12.57%, and 14.51%, respectively. Conse-
quently, along with the increase of the symmetry order of the
three arrays, the peak enhancement factors of the transmis-
sion are determined respectively to be 0.94, 1.40, and 2.18.
Therefore, it demonstrates that the rotational symmetry of
the lattices indeed influences the optical transmission. The
higher is the symmetry order, the larger the transmission en-
hancement factor. It is emphasized that here the experimental
results for the square or hexagonal arrays are in good accord
with that reported in the literature,1,16 which provides strong
basis for the conclusions of this paper.
To understand the above effect, maybe a full acknowl-
edgement of the transmission mechanism is required. How-
ever, a qualitative interpretation is useful. When the incident
radiation impinges on the metal film, the waves are scattered
by the hole lattices and they interfere in the space. The ho-
mogeneous diffracted orders are reflected while the evanes-
cent ones are bounded to the surface. Due to the unpolarized
nature of the incident wave used in the experiments, the eva-
nescent diffracted orders can propagate in any direction
along the surface and suffer a second-order scattering.19 The
wave fields at the opening of a hole benefit from the super-
position of scattered fields from all the surrounded holes,
especially the nearest neighbors. Thus the higher is the rota-
tional symmetry of the hole arrays, the stronger the fields at
the entrance of the holes, and thus the larger the enhance-
ment factor of the transmission.
Additionally, the transmission peaks are found with the
positions locating at wavelengths that are much larger than
the hole size, where the photons cannot pass through the
holes freely. That also stimulates the discussion of the
mechanism of the effect. It is seen that the peak wavelength
␭max is larger than ␭min. Moreover, the peak wavelength is
always larger than that predicted by the SPP model,7 where
091105-3 Wang et al.
␭spp =
2␲
Gmn
冑 ␧ m␧ d
␧m + ␧d
. 共2兲
Here, ␧m and ␧d are, respectively, the dielectric constants of
the metal and the interface medium. For example, in the
square array, Eq. 共2兲 predicts the transmission peaks at the
wavelength 927 and 1362 nm, which is about 10% and 6%
smaller than the experimental value. Similar results can also
be found for the hexagonal or graphite arrays. That means
the enhanced optical transmission occurs at the wavelength
where SPP mode on the metal surface is not resonantly ex-
cited. Nevertheless, the recent experimental evidences, such
as the time delay in light transmission through nanoholes20
and the absorption maxima along with the high
transmission,21 showed that the surface plasmon is indeed
involved in the light-metal interaction. Thus, to understand
and unite all the observations, the detailed mechanism of the
anomalous transmission should be re-examined.
In summary, enhanced transmission of light through per-
forated metal films has been experimentally researched. In-
stead of hole shape, the rotational symmetry of hole arrays
was aimed at in this work for exploring the transmission
properties, and the results show that it influences the optical
transmission strongly. The spectrum shape is governed by
the reciprocal vectors, which relies on the rotational symme-
try. Especially, the transmission efficiency is sensitive to the
symmetry order, and the higher is the symmetry order, the
larger the peak efficiency. With the hexagonal array, the peak
efficiency that is about twice that of the square array has
been achieved. Therefore, the rotational symmetry of hole
arrays together with hole shape are useful elements for ap-
plications, and with which the transmission properties of
light through metal surface can be tailored freely.
This work was supported by the State Key Program for
Basic Research of China 共Grant No. 2004CB619003兲, by the
Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 091105 共2005兲
National Natural Science Foundation of China 共Grant Nos.
60378017 and 10474042兲, and by the Natural Science Foun-
dation of Jiangsu 共Grant No. BK2004209兲.
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