Enhanced transmission via evanescent-to-propagating conversion in metallic nanoslits: role of Rayleigh anomalies

We analyze the enhanced transmission phenomenon in subwavelength slit structures near a dielectric interface. In particular, we investigate the influence of Rayleigh anomalies in the spectral position as well as in the bandwidth of Fabry-Perot resonances excited on such structures. We consider the cases of propagating and evanescent incidence, i.e., when the metallic structure is illuminated from the dielectric medium side with an incidence angle larger than the critical angle. We show that Rayleigh anomalies strongly interact with Fabry-Perot resonances, and make them deviate from the spectral positions predicted by the infinitely thin slit model. To get physical insight into this problem, we develop a simplified electromagnetic model and show that there is a close correspondence between the transmitted response of the structure and the behavior of certain function that depends on the geometrical and the illumination parameters. Our results suggest that Rayleigh anomalies strongly modify the electromagnetic response of the structure due to the existence of surface waves that modify the coupling condition between the fields inside and outside the slits. Besides, we show that even in absence of Fabry-Perot resonances, it is possible to produce enhanced transmission by taking advantage of the pseudoperiodicity condition of the fields.