The results of computer simulations based on the Finite Difference Time Domain method with local space and time grid refinement, are presented for an elliptical aperture in a thin metal film illuminated by a normally incident, monochromatic plane wave. Both cases of incident polarization parallel and perpendicular to the long axis of the ellipse are considered. An intuitive description of the behavior of the electromagnetic fields is developed in each case, and simulation results that exhibit patterns similar to those expected from this qualitative analysis are presented. The simulations reveal, in quantitative detail, the amplitude and phase behavior of the E- and B-fields in and around the aperture.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

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J. Opt. Soc. Am. A

• A. Roberts, �??Electromagnetic theory of diffraction by a circular aperture in a thick, perfectly conducting screen,�?? J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 4, 1970�??83 (1987). [CrossRef]
• L. Novotny, D. W. Pohl, P. Regli, �??Light propagation through nanometer-sized structures: the two-dimensional-aperture scanning near-field optical microscope,�?? J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 11, No. 6, 1768�??79 (2003). [CrossRef]

Opt. Express

• F. J. Garcia de Abajo, �??Light transmission through a single cylindrical hole in a metallic film,�?? Opt. Express 10, 1475�??84 (2002), <a href="http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OPEX-10-25-1475.">http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OPEX-10-25-1475.</a> [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Lett.

• X. Shi, L. Hesselink, and R. L. Thornton, �??Ultrahigh light transmission through a C-shaped nanoaperture,�?? Opt. Lett. 28, 1320�??22 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• T. Thio, K. M. Pellerin, R. A. Linke, H. J. Lezec, and T. W. Ebbesen, �??Enhanced light transmission through a single subwavelength aperture,�?? Opt. Lett. 26, 1972�??74 (2001). [CrossRef]

Phys. Rev.

• H. A. Bethe, �??Theory of diffraction by small holes,�?? Phys. Rev. 66, 163 (1944). [CrossRef]

Phys. Rev. Lett.

• J. A. Porto, F. J. Garcia-Vidal, and J. B. Pendry, �??Transmission resonances on metallic gratings with very narrow slits,�?? Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2845�??48 (1999). [CrossRef]
• Q. Cao and P. Lalanne, �??Negative role of surface plasmons in the transmission of metallic gratings with very narrow slits,�?? Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 57403 (2002). [CrossRef]

Other

• M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics (7th edition, Cambridge University Press, UK, 1999).
• J. D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics (2nd edition, Wiley, New York, 1975).
• A. Taflove and S. C. Hagness, Computational Electrodynamics (Artech House 2000).
• Jin Au Kong, Electromagnetic Wave Theory (EMW Publishing, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000).

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