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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Demonstration of Equal-Intensity Beam Generation by Dielectric Metasurfaces
Published on: June 7, 2019
Why metallic surfaces with grooves a few nanometers deep and wide may strongly absorb visible light
J Le Perchec1, P Quémerais, A Barbara
1Institut Néel, CNRS and Université Joseph Fourier, BP 166, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
Abstract:
It is theoretically shown that nanometric silver lamellar gratings present very strong visible light absorption inside the grooves, leading to electric field enhancement of several orders of magnitude. It is due to the excitation of quasistatic surface plasmon polaritons with particular small penetration depth in the metal. This may explain the abnormal optical absorption observed a long time ago on almost flat Ag films. Surface enhanced Raman scattering in rough metallic films could also be due to the excitation of such quasistatic plasmon polaritons in grain boundaries or notches of the films.
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