Excitations of surface plasmon polaritons in double layer metal grating structures

We study the light scattering properties of double layer gratings (DLGs) made from Au on SiO2 substrates. It is found that surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be excited in the DLGs for a separation of up to 150 nm between the two Au grating layers and the collective reflectance spectra exhibit a strong resonant peak and a closely lying dip as a result of the surface plasmon polariton excitations. It is also found that the angle-resolved specular reflectance spectra show a dip-peak pair structure, while the angle-resolved reflectance spectra of higher diffracted orders show a complementary peak-dip pair structure. Finally, operation of the DLGs for efficient wavelength demultiplexing is proposed and discussed in light of these results. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3690947]