Optical filtering properties of subwavelength Tai-chi-shaped metal hole arrays

Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is employed to study the optical properties of a novel kind of periodic subwavelength hole arrays composed of Tai-chi-shaped holes in silver film, and the optical transmission properties of femtosecond optical pulse excitation is numerically calculated. We find that this Tai-chi-shaped device has better optical band-pass filtering properties, such as narrower pass band and higher transmissivity in visible wavelengths range, than other devices under consideration. Based on the generation of surface plasmons resonance mode in the dielectric-metal interface, the center wavelength of transmission can be tuned by changing the array periodicities. We observe that the tune ability mainly depends on the space period along the direction parallel to that of the incident pulse polarization. It is also found that both the strength and the wavelength of the transmission peaks of rectangularly distributed metal hole arrays are determined by the polarization of incident light. Additionally, we demonstrate the typical band-pass filtering properties of this Tai-Chi-shaped holes structure. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the narrow pass band is about 20 nm in visible wavelengths range. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.