Transmission Resonances on Metallic Gratings with Very Narrow Slits

Transmission metallic gratings with very narrow and deep enough slits can exhibit transmission resonances for wavelengths larger than the period of the grating. By using a transfer matrix formalism and a quasianalytical model based on a modal expansion, we show that there are two possible ways of transferring light from the upper surface to the lower one: by the excitation of coupled surface plasmon polaritons on both surfaces of the metallic grating or by the coupling of incident plane waves with waveguide resonances located in the slits. Both mechanisms can lead to almost perfect transmittance for those particular resonances.