Mechanism of resonant perfect optical absorption in dielectric film supporting metallic grating structures

The mechanism of resonant perfect optical absorbers is quantitatively revealed by the coupled mode method for the air/grating/dielectric film/air four region system. The sufficient and necessary conditions of the perfect optical absorption are derived from the interface scattering coefficients analyses. The coupling of the Fabry-Perot modes in the grating slits and non-zero order quasi waveguide modes in the dielectric film play a key role for the perfect optical absorption when the light is incident from the grating side. The analytical sufficient and necessary conditions of the perfect optical absorption provide an efficient tool towards geometry design for the perfect optical absorption at the specific wavelengths. The advantages of a widely tunable perfect optical absorption wavelength, a high Q factor and the confined energy loss on metal surfaces make the air/grating/film/air structures promising for applications in sensing, modulation and detection.