Optical properties of sub-wavelength hole arrays in SiC membranes

It is shown that perforated SiC membranes can be used for engineering optical properties of metamaterials in the infrared. The complex-valued frequency-dependent effective dielectric permittivity epsilon(eff)(omega) of a single membrane can be controlled by the size and spacing between the holes. Regions of the anomalous dispersion and strong absorption described by epsilon(eff)(omega) have been identified and related to the excitation of even-parity surface phonon polaritons of a smooth SiC film. The effective permittivity description has been validated by comparing the transmittance and absorbance of the film obtained from epsilon(eff)(omega) with that calculated using first principles electromagnetic simulations. Theoretical predictions of the enhanced transmission and absorption in the perforated film have been verified experimentally using FTIR micro-spectroscopy. For the first time, the dependence of enhanced transmission and absorption on the incidence plane of the incoming radiation has been studied.