Abstract. 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 _eff(ω) 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 _eff(ω) 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 _eff(ω) 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.

Keywords: metamaterial, effective medium, electrostatic, plasmonic, resonance, phonon–polariton, silicon carbide, thin film, perforated membrane, hole array, extraordinary transmission

Print publication: Issue 9 (September 2007)
Received 16 March 2007, accepted for publication 2 May 2007
Published 22 August 2007