Control of the diffracted response of a metallic wire array with double period: experimental demonstration

Abstract

In recent papers, it has been theoretically shown that by using dual-period wire gratings, it is possible to control the relative efficiencies of the diffracted orders, regardless of the wires` material, incident polarization and wavelength. In this Letter, we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, that by appropriately choosing the geometrical parameters of a nanometric periodic structure, it is possible to control the optical response in the visible range. We show examples of nanostructures designed to cancel out or to intensify a particular diffraction order. Such nanostructures allow a broad control over the directionality and the intensity of the diffracted light, which makes them useful for applications such as highly directional optical nanoantennas and photonic multiplexers.