Optical transmission through double-layer compound metallic gratings with subwavelength slits

Optical transmission through a double-layer compound metallic grating (DCMG) composed of two identical compound metallic gratings (CMGs) with two subwavelength slits filled with different dielectrics inside each period is investigated by using the finite-difference time-domain method. The results show that the transmission properties of the DCMG are dependent on both the separation G between the two metallic layers and the phase configurations of the electromagnetic waves at the exits of adjacent slits of each layer. When a suitable separation (G similar to 300 nm) is chosen, for the DCMG a notable transmission peak emerges at a certain wavelength, at which phase resonance appears for the corresponding CMG, while the transmission spectra of the corresponding double-layer simple metallic gratings (DSMGs) with the separation (G similar to 300 nm) exhibit unexpected transmission suppression in a broad spectral region. When G > 340 nm, the intensity of the transmission around the wavelength for the DCMG gradually decreases down to almost zero as G increases, while the high transmission is nearly maintained for the corresponding DSMGs.