Enhanced transmission through Penrose subwavelength hole arrays

Transmission through Penrose subwavelength hole arrays is studied in the optical regime. The loss of strict periodicity does not prevent surface plasmon modes from being excited. The authors study the spectral evolutions of these modes by increasing both the spacings between the holes in a commensurate way and the size of the array. When compared to the situation of a periodic array, their measurements show a reduction of the propagation length of the surface modes, most likely related to the influence of multiple scattering, which lowers the contribution of long-range interactions in the transmission spectra. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.