Terahertz superconducting plasmonic hole array

Abstract

We demonstrate a superconductor array of subwavelength holes with active thermal control over the resonant transmission induced by surface plasmon polaritons. The array was lithographically fabricated on a high-temperature yttrium barium copper oxide superconductor and characterized by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Weobserve a clear transition from a virtual excitation of the surface plasmon mode to a real surface plasmon mode. The highly controllable superconducting plasmonic crystals may find promising applications in the design of low-loss, largedynamic-range amplitude modulation and surface-plasmon-based terahertz devices. © 2010 Optical Society of America.