Optical near field in nanometallic slits.

The propagation and the distribution of the optical near field in nanometallic slits are measured by a near-field scanning optical microscope. The optical near field for the p-polarized wave is confined to the middle of the slit. In contrast, the near field for the s-polarized wave is located at the edges. Asimulation by the finite-difference time-domain method verifies that the near-field distribution for the s-polarized wave is due to the propagation of the surface plasmon wave (SPW) at the air-metal surface. The existence of the SPW also accounts for the extraordinary transmittance of s-polarized light, which is one order of magnitude larger than that of p-polarized light.